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CONFLICT  AND  VICTOEY. 


CONFLICT  AND  VICTOEY 


By 


WILLIAM  S.  COCHRANE 


Overcome  evil  with  good." 


CmCINNATI:    JENNINGS   AND   GRAHAM 
NEW    YORK:    EATON    AND    MAINS 


copykight,  1907,  by 
Jennings  and  Graham. 


TO  THE  READER. 

J0^ 


1)V 


The  writer  is  indebted  for  assistance  to 
many  literary  people  whose  thoughts  have 
oft  refreshed  him.  He  would  gladly  make 
acknowledgment  if  possible,  but,  having 
disposed  of  his  library  years  ago,  and  be- 
ing too  weak  for  study,  quoting  almost 
entirely  from  memory,  is  unable  to  do 
more  than  to  ask  those  who  recognize  their 
own  literary  thought  to  accept  his  thanks. 
William  S.  Cochrane. 

Bridgetown,  Out. 


l.GE2u33 


CONTENTS. 

Page. 

To  THE  Reader,    -----  5 

Intkodtjction,  -----  9 

An  Appreciation,          -         -         -         -  15 

part  L 

Ohaptbr. 

I.    Experience  and  Testimony,    -  27 

II.    Lessons,     -----  43 

III.  Consecration,         -         .         -  59 

IV.  Culture,   -----  87 
Y.    Co-operation,         •■         -         -  107 

VI.    Christian  Conduct,    -         -         -  131 

part  IL 

VII.    The  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the 

Brotherhood  OF  Man,  -          -  153 
VIII.    Encouragement,     -          -          -  169 
IX.    Intelligent  Goodness,        -          -  185 
X.    The    Responsibility  of   Citizen- 
ship,       .          -          .          -  203 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  readers  of  this  book,  of  whom  I 
hope  there  may  be  many,  will  not  be  able 
to  appreciate  its  real  value  without  know- 
ing something  of  the  man,  and  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  he  wrote  it. 

The  Eev.  William  S.  Cochrane  has  been 
an  honored  and  faithful  member  of  the 
Minnesota  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  since  1888. 
In  1900  he  passed  to  the  roll  of  veterans 
on  account  of  disability  rather  than  age. 

His  twelve  years  of  effective  service 
were  characterized  by  careful  and  con- 
scientious work,  and  in  every  place  he 
measured  up  to  its  demands.  He  was  an 
all-round    Methodist   preacher,    and   gave 


10  Introduction. 

himself  entirely  to  his  work.    He  is  a  man 
of  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart. 

As  a  pastor  he  was  faithful  to  his  duties, 
and  as  a  preacher  he  was  far  above  the 
average.  His  sermons  were  prepared  with 
great  care,  usually  written  in  full,  and 
were  delivered  in  an  easy,  graceful,  and 
effective  manner.  His  diction  was  elegant, 
his  exegesis  sound,  while  it  was  always 
his  own;  his  illustrations  were  appropri- 
ate, and  he  was  easily  followed. 

For  three  years  before  he  was  super- 
annuated he  battled  hopefully  and  heroic- 
ally with  disease,  still  continuing  his  work, 
until  it  became  clear  to  him,  as  it  had  been 
to  his  friends  for  some  time,  that  there 
was  no  hope  of  recovery  without  entire 
rest  from  labor. 

His  disease,  which  has  finally  been  pro- 
nounced rheumatoid  arthritis,  progressed 
slowly,  insidiously,  but  constantly,  until 
nearly  every  joint  in  his  body  became  rigid 
and  he  was  helpless.    Five  years  ago  his 


Introduction.  1 1 

eyesight  began  to  fail,  and  again,  slowly 
but  surely,  this  trouble  progressed,  until 
our  brother  had  passed  into  the  twilight 
and  then  into  the  dark— he  is  now  blind. 

Truly  he  could  say,  with  Job:  ''Have 
pity  upon  me,  have  pity  upon  me,  0  ye, 
my  friends;  for  the  hand  of  God  hath 
touched  me." 

During  all  these  years  of  retirement  and 
disability  he  has  continued  cheerful,  and 
has    never    murmured    at    his    hard    lot. 

He  retains  all  his  old-time  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  this  world,  both  in  Church 
and  State,  takes  a  lively  interest  in  his 
old  Conference  and  his  old  comrades,  and 
enjoys  the  visits  and  letters  of  friends  to 
the  full  limit. 

During  the  past  four  years  he  has  re- 
sided at  London,  Ontario,  until  this  spring 
he  removed  to  Ridgetown,  Ontario. 

Those  who  have  visited  him  testify  to 
his  remarkable  patience  and  cheerfulness, 
his  Christian  experience  and  life,  and  say 


1 2  Introduction. 

that  a  visit  to  his  room  is  a  means  of 
grace — he  gives  quite  as  much,  even  more, 
than  he  receives  from  the  visitor. 

From  this  darkened  chamber  of  help- 
lessness he  sends  out  this  little  book — 
written  at  the  request  of  friends — hoping 
it  may  do  some  good  in  the  world  from 
which  he  is  shut  out. 

It  breathes  a  divine  fragrance  to  all  who 
remember  the  circumstances  under  which 
it  was  written.  Having  read  a  large  part 
of  the  manuscript,  1  wonder  at  the  fresh- 
ness and  vigor  of  his  thought,  the  marvel- 
ous retentiveuess  of  his  memory,  and, 
through  constant  correspondence  with  him 
during  all  these  years  of  his  invalidism, 
I  glorify  God  on  his  behalf  who  has  en- 
abled him  to  triumph  and  to  glory  even 
in  tribulation. 

I  am  sure  I  shall  be  pardoned  if  I  say 
a  word  of  the  faithful,  devoted  woman, 
who,  during  all  these  years,  has  borne  a 
double  burden  in  caring  for  her  suffering 


Introduction.  13 

husband.  She  has  been  to  him  hands  and 
feet  and  eyes,  nurse  and  amanuensis — 
faithful,  true,  constant.  She  has  grown 
old,  not  with  years,  but  with  double  care 
and  anxiety,  as  truly  a  martyr  as  any  who 
faced  the  wild  beasts  in  the  Colosseum  in 
the  early  years  of  our  era.  The  heroes 
and  heroines  are  not  dead,  thank  the  Lord, 
and  if  the  Son  of  man  should  come  now 
He  would  find  faith  in  the  earth. 

When  you  read  this  book,  think  of  him 
who  wrote  it  shut  in  from  commerce  with 
the  outer  world  and  who  can  never  see  the 
light  of  the  sun,  the  blush  of  the  rose,  or 
the  face  of  wife,  child,  or  friend,  until  he 
sees  in  the  light  of  that  world  where 

"Sickness   and   sorrow,    pain   and    death, 
Are  felt  and  feared  no  more." 

E.  R.  Lathrop. 
Hastings,  Minn. 


AN  APPRECIATION. 


The  Introduction  to  this  little  volume 
has  been  written  by  the  Rev.  Ezra  R. 
Lathrop,  A.  M.,  an  honored  superannuate 
of  the  Minnesota  Conference,  who  looks 
back  on  the  past  and  forward  to  the  sun- 
rising  from  the  summit  of  fifty  years  of 
effective  Christian  ministry.  His  heart  is 
as  young  as  ever,  and  his  sympathy  with 
all  men  grows  with  his  years.  He  has 
written  out  of  his  heart  of  the  author  of 
this  book,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  story 
he  has  left  untold.  It  is  in  my  heart  to 
set  down  here  a  few  words  of  further  ap- 
preciation of  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
strangely  tried  souls  I  have  known.    And 

15 


16  An  AppreciatioTi. 

I  do  it  because  trust  has  won  such  a  vic- 
tory, and  because  the  story  should  be  told 
that  those  who  need  it  may  be  comforted. 

Nearly  a  score  of  years  ago  there  came 
into  the  membership  of  the  Minnesota 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  a  young  man  of  medium  height, 
erect,  alert,  a  gentleman — whose  speaking 
eye  and  pleasant  smile  brought  him  at 
once  into  the  fellowship  of  the  best  minds 
in  that  body.  His  well-trained  mind  and 
his  previous  business  life  made  him  at  once 
the  careful  student  and  the  wise  manager 
of  the  Churches  he  served.  We  took  Wil- 
liam S.  Cochrane  into  full  membership  in 
our  hearts  long  before  his  Conference  pro- 
bation was  ended. 

His  progress  was  steadily  upward  in  the 
confidence  of  his  brethren  and  in  the  re- 
gard of  the  Churches.  When  his  sky  held 
no  cloud  and  his  future  seemed  to  hold 
many  years  of  effective  service,  his  disease 
began  its  work.     This  was  in  the  autumn 


An  Appreciation.  17 

of  1896.  He  continued  his  work  and,  with 
one  leg  in  a  plaster  cast,  got  out  and  dis- 
tributed the  Annual  Minutes  of  his  Con- 
ference, of  which  he  was  the  secretary. 
He  was  then  in  an  important  Church,  and 
between  that  and  Asbury  Hospital,  in  Min- 
neapolis, the  year  was  passed,  varied  by  a 
trip  to  Hot  Springs,  Ark.  He  took  a  lighter 
work  in  1897— coming  to  crutches,  mean- 
time—and preached  until  he  could  stand  in 
the  pulpit  no  longer.  By  this  time  the 
disease  had  progressed  so  far  that  he  could 
not  hold  in  his  arms  the  last  infant  he  bap- 
tized. Thus  it  went  on:  another  winter 
at  Hot  Springs,  and  the  next  in  a  private 
hospital  in  Toronto,  which  he  left  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1900,  pronounced  an  incurable. 
What  this  sentence  meant  to  this  earnest, 
consecrated  man  we  will  never  know. 
Since  that  time,  for  more  than  seven  years 
he  has  never  been  able  to  be  dressed,  ex- 
cept in  a  loose  dressing  gown,  and  he  has 
not  been  able  to  lie  in  any  position  but 
2 


18  An  Appreciation. 

on  his  back  in  all  these  years.  In  the 
winter  of  1900,  while  taking  the  hot  cyl- 
inder treatment  in  Toronto,  he  noticed 
that  his  back,  hips,  neck,  and  knees  were 
beginning  to  stiffen.  For  about  a  year 
after  he  could  sit  propped  in  a  chair  an 
hour  or  two  each  day.  It  required  two, 
and  part  of  the  time  three,  to  lift  him 
from  his  cot  to  a  chair.  During  all  this 
time  his  sufferings  were  intense.  The 
stiffening  of  the  joints  progressed  until 
there  is  scarcely  any  action  possible,  ex- 
cept in  the  arms  and  feet.  He  can  bend 
his  arms  a  little  at  the  elbows,  and  can 
move  his  shoulders  in  a  slight  degree. 
He  has  not  been  able  to  get  his  hands  to 
his  head  for  five  years.  His  left  hand  is 
not  deformed  and  he  can  use  the  fingers; 
but  the  right  hand  is  pulled  out  at  the 
wrist  joint,  and  any  attempt  at  movement 
causes  great  pain.  For  five  years  he  has 
not  been  able  to  feed  himself. 

Then  dimness  of  vision  came,  and  while 


An  Appreciation.  19 

he  can  distinguish  daylight  from  dark,  it 
is  four  years  since  he  lost  the  ability  to 
distinguish  any  objects,  and  the  darkness 
is  increasing  all  the  time.  This  loss  of 
sight  is  one  result  of  his  disease. 

While  he  could  see  the  time  passed  more 
quickly.  He  was  interested  in  everything 
about  him.  He  noted  the  habits  of  the 
birds,  the  squirrels,  and  domestic  animals. 
He  watched  the  rain  and  snow  and  clouds. 
The  changing  foliage,  the  waving  grain, 
the  farmers  in  the  fields — all  gave  him  in- 
terest and  pleasure. 

And  all  this  time  his  mind  has  been  as 
clear  and  strong  as  in  the  days  of  his 
health.  With  almost  utter  helplessness 
upon  him  he  joins  in  the  family  conversa- 
tion and  listens  to  the  reading  of  the  daily 
and  religious  papers.  In  hours  when  he 
is  alone  he  outlines  sermons,  plans  for 
some  shut-in  like  himself,  and  contributes 
to  the  common  fund  of  cheerfulness.  A 
letter   from   his   pastor   tells   us    that   he 


20  An  Appreciation. 

does  more  for  his  callers  than  they  do 
for  him.  He  never  sends  his  friends  a 
doleful  message,  but  is  an  optimist  through 
and  through.  And  this  man,  whose  plan 
of  life  was  changed  by  a  power  not  his 
own,  who  was  turned  from  a  life  of  in- 
creasing effectiveness  in  the  wide  field  of 
service  into  a  quiet  room  to  suffer,  where 
the  windows  of  the  world  about  him  have 
darkened  into  night,  lives  on,  loves  on, 
hopes  on,  because  he  has  the  victory  of 
faith  and  has  found  the  grace  of  God  suf- 
ficient for  all  his  need.  We  thank  God  for 
his  example  now,  which  is  mightier  than 
any  sermon  he  ever  preached.  He  knows 
that  his  disease  is  incurable,  and  he  knows 
not  when  he  shall  be  summoned  to  eternal 
life  and  light,  but  his  victory  is  alread}^ 
won,  and  all  the  rest  is  a  small  matter. 
I  have  written  so  much  because  I  want 
you  to  read  this  book  as  if  you  could  see 
him  in  his  sick  chamber,  as  if  you  could 
hear   his   message   in   the   same   cheerful 


An  Appreciation.  2 1 

tones  which  were  his  when  we  used  to  hear 
him  speak. 

There  is  a  gracious,  patient  woman  who 
has  ministered  at  liis  bedside  through  all 
these  years.  She  is  just  the  same  now  as 
at  the  beginning,  for  love  does  not  fail. 
Other  things  fail :  other  things  pass  away : 
but  not  love.    Thank  God ! 

One  further  word.  I  am  hoping  that  this 
little  book  will  have  a  wide  sale.  It  is 
unique  and  worthy,  and  it  will  help  far 
beyond  its  cost.  And  each  book  sold  will 
add  its  mite  to  the  comfort  of  that  little 
home  in  Ontario  where  lies  one  of  God's 
chosen,  who  watches  and  waits  for  the 
morning. 

H.   C.   Jennings. 

Cincinnati. 


CONFLICT  AND  YICTORY. 
PART  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 
EXPERIENCE  AND  TESTIMONY. 


"Blessed  be  God,  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  mercies,  and  the  God  of 
all  comfort;  who  comforteth  us  in  all  our  tribulation, 
that  we  may  be  able  to  comfort  them  which  are  in 
any  trouble,  by  the  comfort  wherewith  we  ourselves 
are  comforted  of  God." 

"When  thou  passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be 
with  thee;  and  through  the  rivers,  they  shall  not 
overflow  thee:  when  thou  walkest  through  the  fire, 
thou  Shalt  not  be  burned;  neither  shall  the  flame 
kindle  upon  thee." 

"My  grace  is  suflicieut  for  thee." 


EXPERIENCE  AND  TESTIMONY. 

In  writing  this  and  the  following  chap- 
ter, my  only  purpose  is  to  give  encourage- 
ment to  tried  and  trusting  believers,  and 
add  my  testimony  to  the  keeping  power  of 
the  Christian  religion.  I  have  been  greatly 
helped  by  reading  the  accounts  of  other 
sufferers  who  found  in  the  Christian  re- 
ligion an  all-sufficient  support,  and  this 
may  be  my  opportunity  to  pass  the  bless- 
ing on.  If  I  can  in  this  way  reach  and 
comfort  some  one,  as  I  have  been  reached 
and  comforted,  then  I  shall  be  satisfied. 

Brought  up  on  a  farm,  educated  at  the 
public  school  and  Collegiate  Institute,  and 
given  a  fine  training  in  the  hardware  busi- 
ness, I  entered  the  ministry  with  a  fair 
knowledge  of  men  and  things.  I  knew 
something  of  the  strenuous  nature  of  mod- 
27 


28  Conflict  and  Victory. 

ern  business  and  professional  life,  and  this 
gave  my  ministry  a  decidedly  practical 
turn.  It  was  ever  my  aim  to  preach  a 
gospel  of  applied  Christianity.  That  1 
had  ambitions  and  aimed  to  rank  well 
among  my  brethren,  I  am  frank  to  ac- 
knowledge. Had  I  pursued  my  ideal  less 
earnestly,  it  might  have  been  better  phys- 
ically with  me  to-day,  but  having  had  un- 
interrupted good  health  for  over  twenty 
years,  I  had  come  to  regard  myself  as  able 
to  endure  almost  any  amount  of  exposure, 
pastoral  work,  and  hard  study.  During  a 
pastorate  of  fourteen  years  three  short 
vacations  are  all  that  T  can  record. 

The  folly  of  such  a  course  is  wonderfully 
apparent  to  me  now.  In  this  particular  I 
think  our  Church  for  the  past  twenty-five 
3'ears  has  pursued  a  i)olicy  that  has  been 
destructive  of  valuable  energy.  Her 
Preachers'  Meetings,  Ministerial  Insti- 
tutes, and  Clerical  Clubs  have  been  given 
over  altogether  too  much  to  the  discussion 


Estyperience  and  Testimony.  29 

of  ministerial  work.  She  lias  been  em- 
jihasizing  sound  preaching,  pastoral  work, 
methods  of  study,  evangelization,  and  ap- 
plied Christianity,  until  the  conscientious 
pastor  has  returned  to  his  charge  rebuked 
for  the  smallness  of  his  results  and  goaded 
to  a  determination  to  bring  up  his  charge 
to  what  other  people  think  it  ought  to  be. 
I  believe  there  are  hundreds  of  preachers 
who  are  working  beyond  their  strength, 
and  are,  year  in  and  year  out,  on  the 
ragged  edge  of  physical  endurance 
through  pursuing  just  such  an  insane 
policy  as  that  which  has  brought  me  into 
my  present  condition. 

Not  that  I  would  undervalue  good 
preaching,  wise  methods,  and  earnest  en- 
deavor, but  I  would  make  the  work  of  the 
ministry  to  conserve  rather  than  deplete 
valuable  energy,  nervous  force,  and  good 
health.  Only  once  do  I  remember  of  hav- 
ing listened  to  a  common-sense  i^aper  on 
the  important  subject  of  ministerial  health 


30  Conflict  and  Victory. 

and  its  relation  to  success  in  the  ministry, 
and  that  was  when  Dr.  H.  C.  Jennings, 
then  of  Red  Wing,  Minnesota,  read  his 
paper,  entitled,  "A  New  Puritanism,"  be- 
fore the  Preachers'  Meeting  in  St.  Paul, 
and  the  unfortunate  thing  about  it  was 
that  it  was  not  half  appreciated,  I  plead 
for  a  month's  vacation  at  least  each  year 
for  every  minister  of  the  Gospel.  Give 
him  an  opportunity  to  get  out  from  under 
the  burden  and  indulge  in  restful  relax- 
ation. It  is  the  conscientious,  faithful 
preachers  who  will  be  most  benefited  by 
such  an  outing  and  who  will  make  the  most 
valuable  returns  for  vacation  investments. 
As  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  I  tried  to 
be  faithful  in  my  pastoral  labors,  espe- 
cially to  the  unfortunate  and  the  shut-in. 
My  work  among  the  latter  class  was  most 
beneficial  to  me,  for  I  saw,  as  I  could  not 
otherwise  see,  the  value  of  our  holy  reli- 
gion where  the  testing  strain  of  life  is  the 
severest.     So  impressed  was  I  with  this 


Eayperienee  and  Testimony.  31 

fact  that  it  became  a  part  of  my  stock  in 
trade  to  declare  that  the  Christian  can  be 
happy  and  rejoice  under  the  most  distress- 
ing circumstances.  I  had  seen  it,  and  I 
believed  it,  bnt  I  little  knew  then  that  I 
wonld  be  called  upon  to  illustrate  my  own 
positions  in  my  own  life. 

As  I  look  back  now  I  feel  that  my  pur- 
pose was  pure  in  doing  what  I  could  to 
merit  promotion  and  enlarge  my  field  of 
usefulness,  but  the  lack  of  wisdom  lay  in 
my  methods  of  procedure.  I  failed  to 
give  myself  fair  play,  and  as  a  result, 
nervous  prostration  set  in.  In  this  weak- 
ened condition  I  l^ecame  an  easy  prey  to 
rheumatoid  arthritis  which,  up  to  the  pres- 
ent, has  defied  all  medical  treatment. 

My  first  trial  came  to  me  when  I  was 
pastor  of  an  influential  Church  and  secre- 
tary of  my  Conference.  The  apprehension 
that  progressive  ministerial  work  must 
cease,  temporarily  at  least,  filled  me  with 
distressing  forebodings.     It  overtook  me 


32  Conflict  and  Victory. 

when  I  felt  that  my  family  especially 
needed  me,  and  taken  in  connection  with 
the  thought  that  I  must  relinquish  my 
chosen  work  seemed  almost  unendurable. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  sadness  of  my 
feelings  at  the  last  Annual  Conference  I 
was  privileged  to  attend.  The  resigning 
of  the  Conference  secretaryship  was  in  it- 
self enough  to  discourage  the  most  san- 
guine of  men,  but  when  I  asked  for  lighter 
work  and  was  met  by  a  feeling  of  distrust 
of  my  physical  ability  to  care  for  it  on  the 
part  of  those  who  had  the  good  of  the 
work  at  heart,  my  previous  apprehensions 
seemed  suddenly  to  become  realized,  and 
the  distress  of  the  hour  was  severe  beyond 
measure.  Only  those  who  have  passed 
through  such  an  ordeal  can  appreciate  in 
any  due  measure  the  severity  of  the  trial. 
The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only 
thing  that  can  steady,  cheer,  and  sustain 
in  such  an  hour. 

The  packing  up,  moving,  and   settling 


Experience  and  Testimony.  33 

which  the  taking  of  lighter  work  necessi- 
tated, made  a  serious  inroad  upon  my  vital 
energy.  This  was  followed  by  a  painful 
year,  relieved,  so  far  as  human  effort 
could  minister,  by  the  earnest  sympathy  and 
hearty  co-operation  of  a  loyal  people,  who 
asked  of  me  the  direction  of  the  forces  and 
only  such  service  as  my  strength  would 
permit  me  to  render.  They  came  so  near 
to  me  in  their  willingness  to  relieve  me  of 
any  service  which  they  could  perform  that 
I  have  ever  since  borne  them  in  a  loving 
remembrance.  Even  the  little  boys  and 
girls  vied  with  each  other  in  rendering 
some  service  which  assured  me  of  the 
genuine  sympathy  of  the  home  and  that 
my  affliction  was  properly  talked  over 
when  I.  was  not  present.  Although  that 
year's  cloud  was  heavy,  it  had  its  silver 
lining,  and  when  the  year  closed  it  was 
found  to  be  one  of  progress  with  a  very 
marked  change  of  sentiment  to  that  which 
characterized  its  opening.  I  verily  believe 
8 


34  Conflict  a/nd  Victory. 

that  my  affliction  was  a  benediction  to  that 
Church.  I  was  fortunate  in  following  a 
pastor  who,  although  not  needing  it  him- 
self, having  his  own  home,  took  the  pre- 
caution and  had  built  and  paid  for  under 
his  own  supervision  a  well-arranged  par- 
sonage, so  that  my  last  year  in  the  min- 
istry was  made  much  more  comfortable  by 
his  thoughtful  consideration. 

The  closing  of  the  year  brought  its  sad- 
ness and  trial,  for  it  meant  the  breaking 
up  of  our  home  and  the  sending  away  of 
the  older  child,  a  mere  girl  needing  a 
mother's  oversight,  to  the  home  of  a 
friend,  that  she  might  continue  her  edu- 
cation. The  storing  of  the  household 
goods  and  preparations  for  a  journey  to  a 
health  resort,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
disappointment  caused  by  the  failure  of 
the  lighter  work  to  do  for  us  what  we  had 
anticipated,  and  the  stubborn  progress  of 
the  disease,  made  real  to  us  in  a  marked 
manner  the  Biblical  statement,  "Hope  de- 


Ea^erience  and  Testimony.  35 

f erred  maketh  the  heart  sick."  It  made  a 
"via  dolorosa"  of  what  under  other  cir- 
cumstances would  have  been  a  very  de- 
lightful trip. 

Anxious  to  do  what  I  could  to  regain  my 
health,  I  determined  to  spend  the  winter 
in  Hot  Springs,  Ark.,  and  try  what  a  warm 
climate  and  the  hot  baths  would  do  to  re- 
lieve my  trouble.  I  was  doomed  to  further 
disappointment,  for  my  condition  steadily 
grew  worse  instead  of  yielding  to  treat- 
ment. "\¥hen  I  went  to  Hot  Springs  I 
could  manage  to  get  around  with  a  crutch 
and  a  cane,  but  when  I  left,  eight  months 
later,  although  I  had  given  the  baths  a 
fair  trial,  I  had  either  to  be  wheeled  in  a 
chair,  or  carried.  We  accepted  an  invita- 
tion to  the  old  home  for  the  summer,  hop- 
ing that  a  summer  on  the  farm  might  have 
a  restorative  effect,  and  once  again  I  was 
disappointed. 

Up  to  this  time  1  had  not  given  up  the 
hope    of    a    recovery,    and    as    drowning 


36  Conflict  a/nd  Victory. 

people  catch  at  straws,  I  laid  hold  upon 
another  hope.  A  Methodist  preacher  in- 
formed me  that  his  wife  had  been  cured 
of  the  same  trouble  that  afiflicted  me  by  a 
specialist  in  Toronto,  in  whose  private  hos- 
pital rheumatism  was  made  a  specialty.  I 
went  and  took  the  hot  cylinder  treatment 
for  four  months,  returning  at  the  expira- 
tion of  that  time  pronounced  by  the  phy- 
sician in  charge  an  incurable.  That  was 
seven  years  ago,  since  which  time  I  have 
never  been  dressed.  I  have  only  been  able 
to  sit  up  for  a  limited  time,  and  for  the 
last  five  years  have  lain  on  my  back,  only 
sitting  up  while  my  cot  was  being  made. 
At  present,  half  an  hour  every  other  day 
is  my  limit. 

I  thought  I  had  reached  my  heaviest 
trial  when  I  realized  what  it  meant  to  be 
an  incurable.  I  can  not  describe  the  feel- 
ing, the  strange  sinking  at  the  heart  which 
came  upon  me  when  I  realized  that  for  the 


Experience  and  Testimony,  37 

rest  of  the  journey  I  should  belong  to  the 
ranks  of  the  totally  disabled,  and  be  to 
those  whom  I  loved  most  and  who  most 
reciprocated  my  love  a  burden  and  a  care. 

Once  more  I  was  mistaken,  for  a  deeper 
sorrow  and  a  heavier  affliction  awaited  me 
in  the  darkening  of  the  world  and  the  fad- 
ing of  those  faces,  the  light  of  whose  coun- 
tenances meant  so  much  to  me. 

If  my  ideal  had  been  less  exalted,  my 
hopes  less  sanguine,  and  my  prospect  of 
success  less  promising,  I  might  not  have 
suffered  such  mental  agony,  such  soul  tor- 
ture, in  being  reduced  to  my  present  con- 
dition. 

As  I  look  back  over  it  all  now,  I  can 
not  realize  what  I  know  I  have  passed 
through ;  but  of  one  thing  I  can  confidently 
affirm,  and  that  is,  that  the  declaration  of 
my  earlier  ministry  regarding  the  sustain- 
ing power  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  holds 
good.    If  it  had  not  been  for  this,  I  never 


38  Cotiflict  and  Yictory. 

could  have  come  through  it  as  I  have.  I 
have  put  some  of  God's  promises  to  the 
test  and  have  found  them  verifiable.  Yea 
and  amen  to  him  that  believeth. 

"The  tears  we  shed  are  not  in  vain; 

Nor  worthless  is  the  heavy  strife ; 
For,  like  the  bruised  seed  of  grain. 

They  rise  to  renovated  life. 
It  is  through  tears  our  spirits  grow; 

'T  is  in  the  tempest  souls  expand; 
They  simply  teach  us  how  to  go 

To  Him  who  leads  us  by  the  hand. 
Let 's  welcome,  then,  the  stormy  blast; 

Let's  welcome,  then,  the  ocean's  roar; 
They  only  drive  more  sure  and  fast 

Our  trembling  bark  to  heaven's  bright 
shore." 

That  a  great  opportunity  has  been  given 
to  me  to  demonstrate  the  worth  of  our  holy 
religion  I  can  now  see  clearly,  but  I  can 
see  just  as  clearly  that  T  have  not  meas- 
ured up  to  the  greatness  of  the  oppor- 
tunity. May  the  next  man  who  follows  in 
my  wake  do   much   better.     He   can   do 


Mffperience  and  Testimony.  89 

better,  vastly  better,  if  he  will  start  in  with 
the  knowledge  and  purpose  which  1  now 
have. 

There  are  some  lessons  which  we  may 
learn  in  the  furnace  of  affliction  that  we 
can  not  learn  elsewhere,  but  these  I  must 
leave  for  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LESSONS. 


I  see  the  wrong  that  round  me  lies, 

I  feel  the  guilt  within; 
I   hear,    with   groan    and   travail-cries. 

The   world  confess  its  sin. 

Yet,  in  the  maddening  maze  of  things. 
And  tossed  by  storm  and  flood. 

To  one  fixed  trust  my  spirit  clings: 
I  know  that  God  is  good. 

I  dimly  guess  from  blessings  known 

Of  greater  out  of  sight, 
And,  with  the  chastened  Psalmist  own 

His  judgments,   too,  are  right. 

I  know  not  what  the  future  hath 

Of  marvel  or  surprise. 
Assured  alone  that  life  and  death 

His  mercy  underlies. 

And  if  my  heart  and  flesh  are  weak 

To  bear  an  untried  pain, 
The  bruised   reed   He  will   not  break, 

But  strengthen  and  sustain. 


LESSONS. 

I  BELIEVE  that  a  Being  of  infinite,  active 
love  controls  the  universe.  I  have  no 
theodicy,  never  having  been  able  to  con- 
struct one  that  did  not  raise  more  ques- 
tions than  the  greatest  Christian  philos- 
opher could  answer.  In  my  hours  of 
anxiety,  perplexity,  and  distress,  I  fall 
back  upon  the  love  and  righteousness  of 
God,  and  say,  with  Abraham,  '*  Shall  not 
the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?" 

"Who  fathoms  the  Eternal  Thought? 
Who  talks  of  scheme  and  plan? 
The  Lord  is  God!     He  needeth  not 
The   poor   device   of  man." 

My  experience  has  been  peculiar — at 
least  it  seems  so  to  me.  I  can  not  explain 
it,  but  I  can  trust  and  believe  that  ^'He 

43 


44  Conjiict  and  Victory. 

doeth  all  things  well, ' '  and  that  if  we  knew 
all  the  facts  and  the  causes,  His  goodness 
would  stand  approved. 

"A  loving  worm  within  its  clod 
Is  better  than  a  loveless  God 
In  all   His  worlds,   I  '11   dare  to  say." 

If  in  all  our  affiictions  He  is  afflicted, 
is  it  not  incumbent  upon  us  to  learn  the 
lesson  of  submissive  obedience  to  the  Di- 
vine will?  The  following  declaration  of 
the  Master  fortifies  this  position :  ' '  What 
I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou  shalt 
understand  hereafter." 

In  harmony  with  this  teaching,  I  have 
found  it  helpful  to  observe  the  following 
simple  rules  of  Christian  life.  Begin  by 
consecrating  yourself  to  God  for  time  and 
for  eternity.  This  done,  you  need  not  an- 
ticipate any  future  trouble.  Do  not  cross 
any  bridges  until  you  come  to  them,  nor 
grieve  over  any  trial  that  may  await  you, 
not    even    the    hour    of   dissolution.      He 


Lessons.  45 

whose  love  created  you  and  still  cares  for 
you  will  not  desert  you  when  confronted 
by  the  inevitable.  "Rest  in  the  Lord  and 
wait  patiently  for  Him"  to  work  out  His 
will  concerning  you,  and  if  the  discipline 
seem  severe,  remember  that  ''whom  the 
Lord  loveth,  He  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth 
every  son  whom  He  receiveth. "  We  are 
too  apt  to  make  a  partial  application  of 
the  promise,  "My  God  shall  supply  all 
your  need  according  to  His  riches  in  glory 
by  Christ  Jesus."  This  surely  means 
more  than  daily  food,  books,  friends,  and 
religious  privilege.  It  must  also  imply 
needful  discipline.  If  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation  was  made  perfect  through  suf- 
fering, who  are  we  that  we  should  despise 
the  chastening  of  the  Lord,  or  faint  when 
we  are  rebuked  of  Him?  "Furthermore 
we  have  had  fathers  of  our  flesh  which  cor- 
rected us  and  we  gave  them  reverence: 
shall  we  not  much  rather  be  in  subjection 


46  Confiict  and  Victory. 

unto  the  Father  of  spirits,  and  live?  For 
they  verily  for  a  few  days  chastened  us 
after  their  own  pleasure;  but  He  for  our 
profit,  that  we  might  be  partakers  of  His 
holiness. 

''Now,  no  chastening  for  the  present 
seemeth  to  be  joyous,  but  grievous ;  never- 
theless afterward  it  yieldeth  the  peaceable 
fruit  of  righteousness  unto  them  which  are 
exercised  thereby." 

Altruistic  thinking  becomes  a  strong 
support  in  affliction,  when  wisely  directed. 
The  tendency  of  the  afflicted  is  to  become 
morbid  or  depressed  through  introspec- 
tion. We  are  apt  to  dwell  too  much  upon 
our  own  troubles,  thereby  becoming  dis- 
qualified to  patiently  and  cheerfully  en- 
dure misfortune,  forgetting  that  it  is  our 
high  privilege  as  Christians  to  glory  in 
tribulation. 

If  God  has  permitted  you  to  retain,  even 
in  a  weakened  measure,  the  right  use  of 
your  intellectual  powers,  then  it  is  yours, 


J^essons.  47 

in  spite  of  a  totally  disabled  body,  to  cre- 
ate for  yourself  an  intellectual  environ- 
ment where  you  may  live  and  move  and 
rejoice  with  a  joy  unspeakable.  Even  an 
emaciated,  disabled  thinker,  racked  on  a 
bed  of  pain,  can  enter  this  environment 
of  his  own  creation,  and  say  with  the  poet : 

"I  am  owner  of  all  the  sphere. 
Of  the  seven  stars  and  the  solar  year; 
Of  Cassar's  hand  and  Plato's  brain, 
Of  divinest  heart  and  Shakespeare's  strain." 

If  you  will  turn  your  thought  from  your 
own  difficulties  and  consider  the  social 
progress  of  the  race  and  the  religious 
transformation  of  the  world,  you  will  find 
in  these  two  departments  of  Christian  en- 
deavor themes  of  such  absorbing  interest 
as  to  make  you  forget,  for  the  time  being, 
your  little  environment  of  place  and  cir- 
cumstance. We  have  an  interesting  field 
open  to  us  in  the  material  progress  of  this 
age,  as  seen  in  agriculture,  manufacture, 


48  Confiict  and  Victory. 

commerce,  transportation,  and  the  myriad 
appliances  of  electricity.  It  is  intensely 
interesting  to  study  the  forces  at  work 
transforming  the  world  and  making  for 
each  succeeding  generation  a  practically 
new  world.  The  boy  of  to-day  is  entering 
a  very  different  world  from  that  which  his 
father  knew  when  he  was  a  boy.  Do  not 
think  because  you  are  physically  disabled, 
that  you  are  thereby  disqualified  to  enter 
into  hearty  sympathy  with  the  great  move- 
ments and  achievements  of  your  own  time. 
Consider  the  needs  of  your  own  locality 
and  think  out  some  practical  suggestions 
for  the  Young  People's  Society,  the  Sun- 
day-school, or  the  local  Church.  Arrange 
a  bouquet  of  flowers  for  some  shut-in  like 
yourself;  or,  better  still,  write  a  newsy, 
racy,  up-to-date  letter,  keeping  well  in  the 
background  the  thought  that  you  are  writ- 
ing to  a  sick  person.  Every  thoughtful 
invalid  will  appreciate  a  letter  which  takes 
for  granted  that  the  one  to  whom  it  is 


Lessons.  49 

written  is  still  a  factor  in  the  world's  work. 
I  speak  from  experience,  for  during  the 
nine  3'ears  last  past  of  my  life,  Rev.  E.  R. 
Lathrop,  of  Hastings,  Minn.,  made  me  the 
recipient  of  good  letters  like  the  above  at 
regular  intervals,  never  suffering  the  cor- 
respondence to  flag  because  of  my  inability 
to  respond  regularly. 

In  this  way  I  have  been  kept  in  touch 
with  my  Conference,  the  events  of  the 
country  where  I  labored,  and  the  principal 
movements  of  our  own  times.  By  his 
thoughtfulness,  he  has  conferred  a  positive 
benefit  upon  me,  much  greater  than  he  can 
realize.  Would  that  every  one  who  can 
would  lay  hold  upon  this  source  of  power, 
and  thereby  ''strengthen  the  weak  hands 
and  confirm  the  feeble  knees  " 

If  you  meet  with  anything  in  your  read- 
ing that  is  especially  helpful  to  you,  make 
a  note  of  it,  or  clip  it  and  pass  it  on.  What 
will  nourish  your  soul  may  strengthen  and 
cheer  some  one  else. 

4 


50  Conflict  and  Victory. 

"If  ycu  've  heard  a  wise  word  spoken, 

To  a  friend  that  word  impart; 
'T  Is  a  seed-thought  full  of  blessing, 
Plant  it  in  another's  heart." 

Make  a  tour  of  the  universities  and  col- 
leges in  company  with  John  R.  Mott,  and 
let  your  soul  drink  in  a  little  missionary 
enthusiasm  while  he  talks  to  you  about  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement.  Go  with 
Dr.  Grenfell  to  the  deep-sea  fishermen  of 
Labrador,  or  follow  those  angels  of  light, 
the  deaconesses,  through  the  slums  of  our 
great  cities,  and  you  will  realize  something 
of  the  power  of  thought  to  transform  what 
would  otherwise  be  a  wearisome  hour  of 
suffering  into  one  of  glorious  exaltation. 

Be  an  altruist  in  conversation,  as  well 
as  in  thought.  Try  to  have  something 
helpful  to  talk  about  when  your  callers 
come  to  see  you.  Interest  yourself  in  them 
for  the  time  being,  sidetracking  your  own 
troubles,  and  you  may  be  able  to  send  them 
away  strengthened  for  a  better  service    If 


Lessons.  5 1 

you  will  give,  as  well  as  receive,  yon  will 
find  that  humanity  is  planned  upon  the 
great  principle  of  reciprocity  and  that  the 
words  of  the  Master  are  ever  true,  ''It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 

Besides  those  things  which  come  into 
life's  definite  plans,  there  are  countless 
opportunities  all  along  the  way  for  doing 
little  acts  of  kindness  and  helpfulness 
which  are  of  untold  value.  We  may  not 
be  called  to  great  service,  but  as  Chris- 
tians we  are  called  to  a  sympathetic  in- 
terest in  those  who  are,  and  it  is  our  duty 
to  help  them  when  we  can.  The  widow 
of  Sarepta  could  not  beard  Ahab  or  shake 
Israel,  but  she  could  bake  bread  for  the 
prophet  Elijah,  who  could  and  did  do  both. 

''It  is  the  duty,  as  it  should  be  the  privi- 
lege, of  every  one  who  acknowledges  him- 
self to  be  a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  do 
with  all  his  heart  whatever  his  hand  finds 
to  do ;  and  if  the  'whatever*  should  be  con- 
fined to  the  little  ministries  of  life,  the 


52  Conflict  and  Victory. 

privileges  of  this  kind  of  service  slioiild 
be  sought  after  the  more  eagerly." 

"The  memory  of  a  kindly  word  long,  long  gone  by. 
The  fragrance  of  a  fading  flower,  sent  lovingly, 
The  gleaming  of  a  sudden  smile  or  sudden  tear. 
The  warmer  pressure  of  the  hand,  the  tone  of  cheer. 
The  hush  that  means  *I  can  not  speak,  but  I  have 

heard,' 
The  note  that  only   bears  a  verse  from  God's  own 

Word; 
Such  minor  things  we  hardly  count  as  ministry. 
The    givers    deeming    they    have    shown    scant    sym- 
pathy : 
But  when  the  heart  is  overwrought — O,  who  can  tell 
The    power    of    little    things    like    these   to    make    it 
well?" 

Shakespeare  said,  "Sweet  are  the  uses 
of  adversity."  He  did  not  say  sweet  is 
adversity.  He  knew  better.  It  is  often  by 
adversity  that  we  learn  to  appreciate  our 
own  powers  and  religious  privileges,  and 
to  place  a  proper  valuation  upon  human 
friendship  and  sympathy.  The  heart  of 
humanity   is    larger,    warmer,    and    more 


Lessons.  53 

tender  and  sympathetic  than  we  are  apt 
to  think  it  is.  It  manifests  itself  in  ad- 
versity as  in  no  other  way.  We  see  this 
in  the  relief  stations  along  the  lines  of  rail- 
ways leading  out  of  San  Francisco,  with 
their  supplies  of  food  and  rainment  for  the 
stricken  ones,  and  in  the  willing  service  on 
their  behalf.  Even  the  passengers  on  the 
trains  give  up  their  berths  cheerfully  to 
the  more  disabled  ones,  and  vie  with  each 
other  in  ministering  to  their  comfort  and 
necessity. 

Nor  does  it  require  an  earthquake  to 
demonstrate  this  fact.  In  my  own  expe- 
rience as  an  invalid  in  traveling  from  place 
to  place,  I  have  realized  something  of  the 
inherent  goodness  of  humanity  in  the 
many  kindnesses  extended  to  me  by  utter 
strangers,  the  very  memory  of  which  fills 
me  with  emotion  to-day.  To  mention  but 
one  journey.  A  lady  with  a  very  kind  face 
came  to  me  and  offered  me  a  glass  of 
wine,   because   she   thought  I   looked   fa- 


54  ConJUct  and  Victory. 

tigued.  Another  prepared  an  egg  and 
milk  and  brought  it  to  me,  hoping  thereby 
to  strengthen  me  for  my  journey.  When 
I  changed  cars  at  St.  Louis,  the  train- 
hands  carried  me  out  as  tenderly  and 
cheerfully  as  though  I  had  been  a  king,  and 
when  my  wife  stepped  on  the  platform,  a 
gentleman  touched  her  on  the  arm  and 
asked,  "Is  this  Mrs.  Cochrane?"  When 
she  looked  up  in  a  strange  face  and  an- 
swered in  the  affirmative,  he  said,  "Here 
is  a  wheel-chair  for  your  husband."  He 
was  the  general  passenger  agent  of  the 
road,  and  placed  the  chair  with  a  man  to 
wheel  it  at  our  disposal  while  we  remained 
iu  the  depot.  The  station  agent  at  the 
point  of  starting  had  wired  him  after  our 
departure.  It  was  an  unexpected  and 
greatly  appreciated  kindness. 

When  we  reached  the  home  depot,  be- 
fore our  own  friends  could  do  anything  for 
m.e,  the  train-hands  and  depot  agent  had 
taken  me  from  the  car  and  placed  me  in 


Lessons.  55 

the  carriage  that  was  awaiting  me.  A 
thoughtful  consideration  on  the  part  of 
our  fellow  travelers,  and  the  train  crews, 
characterized  the  entire  journey  from 
start  to  finish,  and  in  every  case  our  bene- 
factors were  entire  strangers  to  us. 

It  would  seem  like  an  exaggeration  were 
1  to  enter  into  detail  in  portraying  the 
kindness  of  the  people  of  Shetland  and 
London,  Ont.,  during  our  sojourn  in  those 
places.  The  cheerful  salutations,  the  ani- 
mated conversations,  and  the  many 
thoughtful  attentions,  furnish  me  now 
with  delightful  themes  for  meditation. 

Wherever  I  have  gone  I  have  found  the 
good  Samaritan  very  much  in  evidence, 
and  I  have  come  to  place  a  higher  value 
upon  the  average  man  and  the  average 
woman  than  T  thought  of  doing  in  the  days 
of  my  health  and  strength. 


CHAPTER  III. 
CONSECRATION. 


"God  forbid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is 
crucified  unto  me  and  I  unto  the  world." 

"For  we  are  His  workmanship,  created  in  Christ 
Jesus  unto  good  works,  which  God  hath  before  or- 
dained that  we  should  walk  in  them." 

"Put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God,  that  ye  may 
be  able  to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil.  For 
we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
principalities,  against  powers,  against  the  rulers  of 
the  darkness  of  the  world,  against  spiritual  wicked- 
ness in  high  places." 


CONSECRATION. 

I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies 
of  God,  to  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 
acceptable  to  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service. 
— Eom.  xii,  1. 

In  this  world  life  is  a  conflict.  Every 
good  tiling  in  it  lies  beyond  a  battlefield. 
To  secure  that  which  is  of  real  value,  we 
must  fight  our  way  to  it,  and  strive  ear- 
nestly to  possess  and  retain  it.  We  see  this 
in  physical  life,  which,  from  infancy  to  old 
age,  is  one  continual  battle  with  infirmity 
and  disease.  Every  student  realizes  in  the 
mental  world  that  education  is  a  long  con- 
flict. The  powers  of  the  mind  have  to  fight 
their  way  through  development  to  strength 
and  maturity.  Pre-eminently  is  this  true 
of   the    spiritual    life,    for   in   it   enemies 

59 


60  Conjlict  mid  Victory. 

throng  our  way  and  contest  every  step  of 
our  onward  progress.  The  whole  period 
between  the  soul's  conversion  and  its  en- 
trance into  heaven  is  a  strenuous  conflict. 
Hence  the  appropriateness  of  Paul's  in- 
junction, *'Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but 
overcome  evil  with  good."  This  Scripture 
gives  us  the  attitude  and  purpose  of  the 
Christian  life  in  relation  to  evil.  Our  atti- 
tude should  be  one  of  continuous  opposi- 
tion, coupled  with  a  fixed  purpose  to  over- 
come. To  make  our  victory  permanent,  we 
must  not  only  vanquish,  the  evil,  but  install 
the  good— '^Overcome  evil  with  good." 
How  shall  this  be  done?  Let  the  author  of 
this  Scripture  tell  us. 

1.  By  Consecration.  "Present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable 
to  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service." 
This  would  indicate  the  consecration  of  a 
life  in  reasonable  service,  which  must  be 
wholly  unto  the  Lord  to  be  acceptable  to 


Consecration.  61 

Him.  When  this  is  done  the  essential  re- 
quirement is  met,  and  nothing  can  take  its 
place,  for  in  this  conflict  consecration  is 
first  and  fundamental.  The  first  essential 
in  the  Christian  life  is  personal  attachment 
to  Christ,  such  as  will  enable  Him  to  reign 
supremely  and  rule  perfectly  in  our  hearts, 
and  in  our  lives.  Such  an  attachment  is 
not  a  mere  passing  emotion  stirred  by  a 
sentimental  hymn,  or  a  pathetic  anecdote, 
but  a  deep,  strong,  pure  affection  which 
persists  in  every  mood,  shows  itself  in  ac- 
tion, and,  when  occasion  requires,  in  sacri- 
fice for  the  Master. 

The  great  militant  embodied  host,  the 
true  Christian  army  of  earth,  is  composed 
entirely  of  such,  and  none  can  reasonably 
expect  to  conquer,  and  share  in  the  coming 
triu^mph,  who  do  not  belong  to  it.  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  center  of  that  army's  unity; 
for  all  believers  are  one  in  Him.  He  is, 
also,    the    mainspring    of    their    activity. 


62  Conflict  and  Victory. 

"Without  Me  ye  can  do  nothing."  United 
to  Him  by  saving  faith,  we  can  say  with 
David,  "The  Lord  of  hosts  is  with  us;  the 
God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge ; "  or  with  Paul, 
in  a  more  vigorous,  hopeful  strain,  "I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  which 
strengtheueth  me."  But  let  a  believer  in 
Christ  separate  himself  from  Christ  and 
live  upon  his  vigor  of  body,  his  clearness 
of  intellect,  his  past  reputation,  or  emi- 
nence of  position,  and  he  will  be  a  miser- 
able failure;  he  will  simply  do  nothing — 
his  vital  strength  is  gone. 

In  our  religious  life  Christ  must  be  all 
and  in  all.  We  can  not  do  without  Him 
in  this  world.  Without  His  teaching  and 
life,  we  would  have  no  conception  of  what 
the  highest  moral  excellence  is;  without 
His  Spirit,  we  would  be  strangers  to  that 
sublime  power  which  alone  enables  feeble 
man  to  do  Jehovah's  will.  Take  away  His 
love,  and  you  rob  mankind  of  the  mightiest 
motive  that  can  influence  the  soul  to  con- 


Consecration.  63 

secration  and  service.  Without  His  prom- 
ises, we  would  have  no  inspiration  to  cheer 
and  encourage  us  amid  the  difficulties,  per- 
plexities, and  privations  of  earth.  Without 
His  sacrifice,  there  would  be  no  deliverance 
from  sin,  no  help  in  sorrow,  and  no  pros- 
pect of  heaven  and  eternal  life;  for,  as 
Peter  puts  it,  "Neither  is  there  salvation 
in  any  other. ' ' 

It  is  through  consecration  that  we  be- 
come the  possessors  of  the  "power  of  God 
unto  salvation,"  a  power  never  bestowed 
in  all  its  fullness  upon  an  unconsecrated 
man,  a  power  superior  to  the  laws  of 
natural  development,  force  of  will,  or 
moral  habit. 

Consecration  enfranchises  all  our  nobler 
faculties,  and  gives  right  direction  to  the 
life.  In  proof  of  this,  permit  me  to  cite 
you  to  the  lives  of  three  of  the  greatest 
men  in  history. 

Our  first  illustration  is  taken  from  the 
Old  Testament,  and  has  to  do  with  the  life 


64  Conjlict  and  Victory. 

and  work  of  Moses,  the  greatest  man  of 
his  day.  The  story  of  his  birth,  rescue 
from  death,  education  at  the  Egj^ptian 
court,  flight  into  Midian,  and  how  he  be- 
came the  shepherd  of  Jethro's  flocks  and 
herds  is  so  familiar  that  repetition  here  is 
unnecessary.  Tlie  turning  point  in  his  life 
was  when  he  stood  before  the  burning  bush 
at  Mount  Horeb.  The  account  of  the  con- 
secration he  made  there  is  given  us  in  the 
third  chapter  of  Exodus.  He  approached 
this  phenomenon  in  the  spirit  of  a  devout 
inquirer  after  truth.  ''I  will  now  turn 
aside,"  ho  said,  ''and  see  this  great  sight, 
why  the  bush  is  not  burnt."  His  attention 
and  thoughtful  consideration  were  re- 
warded, for  the  record  reads: 

"When  the  Lord  saw  that  he  turned 
aside  to  see,  God  called  unto  him  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  bush,  and  said,  Moses,  Moses ; 
And  he  said.  Here  am  I. ' '  Then  followed 
a  special  revelation  in  these  words:  *'I 
am  the   God  of  thy   father,   the   God   of 


Consecration.  65 

Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
God  of  Jacob.  ...  I  have  surely  seen 
the  afflction  of  My  people  which  are 
in  Egypt  and  have  heard  their  cry  by 
reason  of  their  taskmasters;  for  I  know 
their  sorrows ;  and  I  am  come  down  to  de- 
liver them  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, and  to  bring  them  up  out  of  that 
land  unto  a  good  land  and  a  large,  into  a 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  with  honey." 
To  this  revelation  was  added  the  following 
commission :  ' '  Come  now  therefore,  and  I 
will  send  thee  unto  Pharaoh,  that  thou 
raayest  bring  forth  My  people  the  children 
of  Israel  out  of  Egypt." 

When  the  interview  closed,  Moses  had 
made  his  consecration,  and  accepted  his 
commission.  Notice  the  change  which  im- 
mediately took  place.  The  scholar  and 
philosopher  no  longer  tarries  in  the  employ 
of  Jethro  in  the  capacity  of  a  common  hire- 
ling, but  enters  at  once  upon  his  duties  as 
an  emancipator,  a  leader,  and  a  lawgiver 

5 


(36  Conflict  and  Victory, 

to  his  nation;  where  with  powers  enfran- 
chised, and  a  properly  directed  life,  he  con- 
ducted to  a  successful  issue  the  longest, 
hardest,  and  dreariest  march  on  record. 

Reader,  where  Moses  stood,  you  stand, 
with  this  difference— you  are  confronted, 
not  with  an  unconsumed  burning  bush,  but 
with  a  great  system  of  religion,  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  which  has  been  in  the  furnace, 
not  for  a  few  hours  only,  but  for  nineteen 
centuries,  and  is  still  blazing  before  you. 
The  fires  of  persecution,  social  ostracism, 
intolerant  bigotry,  and  rationalistic  skep- 
ticism have  played  upon  it  without  con- 
suming or  injuring  it.  Should  not  this 
arouse  within  you  the  spirit  of  honest  in- 
quiry, and  prompt  you  to  ask  yourself 
seriously  the  question,  Why  is  it  not  con- 
sumed? If  you  will  do  this  your  experi- 
ence will  be  akin  to  that  of  Moses.  God 
will  speak  to  you,  reveal  Himself  to  you — 
blessing  you  with  a  sense  of  your  responsi- 
bility—and give  to  you  a  commission.    As 


Consecration.  67 

obedience  to  the  heavenly  vision  lifted 
Moses  out  of  common  servitude  and  gave 
him  a  prominent  place  among  the  im- 
mortals, as  the  world's  greatest  Law- 
giver, so  will  consecrated  obedience  to  the 
Divine  will  bring  all  the  greatness  of  being 
that  is  in  you  to  the  surface,  and  enable 
you  to  live  out  your  noblest.  If  consecra- 
tion does  not  make  of  you  a  second  Moses, 
it  will  make  of  you  as  great  a  man  as  it  is 
possible  for  you  to  become. 

The  measure  of  man's  vision  and  the 
sense  of  God's  nearness  depend  upon 
man's  faith  and  purity  of  purpose.  '' Obe- 
dience is  better  than  sacrifice." 

"Every  faculty  tasked 

To  perceive  him,  has  gained  an  abyss,  where  a  dew- 
drop  was  asked. 

Have  I  knowledge?  Confounded  it  shrivels  at  "Wis- 
dom laid  bare. 

Have  I  forethought?  How  purblind,  how  blank  to 
the  Infinite  Care. 

Do  I  task  any  faculty  highest  to  image  success? 

I  but  open  my  eyes — and  perfection,  no  more  and 
no  less, 


68  Conflict  and  Yictory. 

In  the  kind  I  imagined,  full-fronts  me,  and  God  is 
seen  God 

In  the  star,  in  the  stone,  in  the  flesh,  in  the  soul 
and  the  clod. 

And  thus  looking  within  and  around  me,  I  ever  renew 

(With  that  stoop  of  the  soul  which  in  bending  up- 
raises it  too) 

The  submission  of  man's  nothing-perfect  to  God's 
all-complete. 

As  by  each  new  obeisance  of  spirit  I  climb  to  his 
feet." 

Coming  down  to  another  dispensation, 
New  Testament  times,  we  find  the  same 
thing  to  be  true  of  the  next  greatest  char- 
acter revealed  to  me  in  the  Bible,  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  afterward  Paul  the  apostle.  His 
case  is  familiar  to  us  all.  That  he  lived, 
wrote  the  Epistles  ascribed  to  him,  and 
bore  the  double  character,  first  of  a  fierce 
enemy  of  the  Gospel,  and  afterwards  of  a 
preacher  of  the  faith  which  he  once  de- 
stroyed, sacrificing  all  things,  and  enduring 
all  pains  for  the  sake  of  Christ  his  Master, 
is  as  well  attested  as  any  fact  on  the  page 


Consecration.  69 

of  history.  This  change  he  tells  us  was 
snpernaturally  wrought.  He  gives  the  day, 
the  very  hour  in  which  his  bad  career  was 
stopped,  and  shows  himself  to  all  the  world, 
from  that  moment  onward,  another  man. 
The  contrast  between  his  former  and 
later  commissions,  between  the  direction  of 
his  early  life  and  that  of  his  later  years, 
is  so  marked  that  its  consideration  may  not 
be  unprofitable.  Glance  for  a  moment  at 
the  two  commissions  held  by  this  man. 
When  he  first  meets  us  in  the  splendor  of 
his  young  manhood,  it  is  as  a  fierce  enemy 
of  the  Gospel.  One  who  could  stand  un- 
condemned  guarding  the  raiment  of  the 
young  men  who  stoned  Stephen.  In  the 
language  of  Dr.  Douglas,  he  was  "A  reviler 
and  rejector  of  Jesus,  a  frenzied  persecutor 
of  the  saints,  upon  whose  ear  the  anguish 
of  dying  Christians  was  as  sweetest  music, 
and  in  whose  eye  the  blood  of  the  faithful 
was  as  Orient  light."    What  power  could 


70  Conflict  mid  Victory. 

change  such  a  life  and  make  it  subservient 
to  righteousness  I  That  we  may  know  what 
this  man  has  to  say  in  the  light  of  his  own 
experience  touching  the  reality  and  worth 
of  his  consecration,  we  shall  permit  him  to 
speak  for  himself. 

"I  think  myself  happy,  King  Agrippa, 
because  I  shall  answer  for  myself  this  day 
before  thee  touching  all  the  things  whereof 
I  am  accused  of  the  Jews : 

"My  manner  of  life  from  my  youth, 
which  was  at  the  first  among  mine  own 
nation  at  Jerusalem,  know  all  the  Jews; 
which  knew  me  from  the  beginning,  if  they 
would  testify,  that  after  the  most  straitest 
sect  of  our  religion  I  lived  a  Pharisee. 

''I  verily  thought  with  myself,  that  I 
ought  to  do  many  things  contrary  to  the 
name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Which  thing 
I  also  did  in  Jerusalem;  and  many  of  the 
saints  did  I  shut  up  in  prison,  having  re- 
ceived authority  from  the  chief  priests; 
and  when  they  were  put  to  death,  I  gave 


Consecration.  71 

my  voice  against  them.  And  I  punished 
them  oft  in  every  synagogue,  and  com- 
j)elled  them  to  blaspheme;  and  being  ex- 
ceedingly mad  against  them,  I  i^ersecuted 
them  even  unto  strange  cities.  Where- 
upon as  I  went  to  Damascus  with  authority 
and  commission  from  the  chief  priests,  at 
midday,  0  king,  I  saw  in  the  way  a  light 
from  heaven,  above  the  brightness  of  the 
sun,  shining  round  about  me  and  them 
which  journeyed  with  me.  And  when  we 
were  all  fallen  to  the  earth,  I  heard  a  voice 
speaking  unto  me,  and  saying  in  the  He- 
brew tongue,  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest 
thou  Me!  It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick 
against  the  pricks.  And  I  said,  Who  art 
thou.  Lord?  And  He  said,  I  am  Jesus 
whom  thou  persecutest. ' ' 

Thus  the  Great  Confessor  describes  his 
own  conversion.  The  completeness  of  his 
consecration  may  be  inferred  from  his  own 
question,  "Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me 
to  dor '    Paul  gives  us  the  answer  to  this 


72  Conflict  cmd  Victory. 

inquiry  in  the  following  Scripture,  which 
constitutes  his  second  commission : 

''Rise,  and  stand  upon  thy  feet;  for  I 
have  ax)]peared  unto  thee  for  this  purijose, 
to  make  thee  a  minister  and  a  witness  both 
of  these  things  which  thou  hast  seen,  and 
of  those  things  in  the  which  I  will  appear 
unto  thee ;  delivering  thee  from  the  people, 
and  from  the  Gentiles,  unto  whom  now  I 
send  thee,  to  open  their  eyes,  and  to  turn 
them  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the 
power  of  Satan  unto  God,  that  they  may 
receive  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  inheritance 
among  them  which  are  sanctified  by  faith 
that  is  in  Me.  AVhereupon,  0  King  Agrippa, 
I  was  not  disobedient  unto  the  heavenly 
vision:  but  shewed  first  unto  them  of 
Damascus,  and  at  Jerusalem,  and  through- 
out all  the  coasts  of  Jndea,  and  then  to  the 
Gentiles,  that  they  should  repent  and  turn 
to  God,  and  do  works  meet  for  repentance. 
For  these  causes  the  Jews  caught  me  in  the 
temple,  and  went  about  to  kill  me.    Having 


Consecration.  73 

therefore  obtained  help  of  God,  I  continue 
unto  this  day,  witnessing  both  to  small  and 
great,  saying  none  other  things  than  those 
which  the  jjrophets  and  Moses  did  say 
should  come :  that  Christ  should  suffer,  and 
that  He  should  be  the  first  that  should  rise 
from  the  dead,  and  should  shew  light  unto 
the  people,  and  to  the  Gentiles." 

The  Divine  life  in  him  is  not  less  evident 
to  all  who  know  his  history.  His  own  ac- 
count of  the  change  which  he  testified  in 
every  place  is  this,  "It  pleased  God,  who 
separated  me  from  my  mother's  womb,  and 
called  me  by  His  grace,  to  reveal  his  Son 
in  me. "  '  *  By  the  Grace  of  God  I  am  what 
I  am."  '* Created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto 
good  works."  By  this  testimony  and  the 
spotless  character  which  vindicates  it  to 
the  world,  Paul  still  lives,  a  monumental 
man,  and  ' '  rules  us  from  his  urn. ' ' 

In  Old  England,  John  Wesley,  our  third 
character,  is  not  likely  to  be  forgotten. 
There  is  a  marked  contrast  between  his  life 


74  Conflict  and  Victor y. 

and  that  of  Paul  in  this  particular,  John 
Wesley  never  antagonized  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. Indeed,  his  sympathies  were  al- 
ways on  the  side  of  righteousness.  Nursed 
in  piety,  an  accomplished  scholar,  he  lost 
nothing  of  the  religious  flame  kindled  in 
his  early  youth.  Fired  with  a  zeal  for  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  convert  the  Indians  of  America,  and 
during  his  absence  he  became  conscious 
of  the  need  of  a  fuller  consecration.  After 
a  brief  interval  of  unproductive  labor,  he 
returned  to  England,  a  sincere  seeker  after 
a  deeper  work  of  grace.  At  a  meeting  held 
in  Aldersgate  Street,  London,  while  one 
was  reading  Luther's  preface  to  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  he  experienced  such 
an  inward  change,  that  he  ever  afterwards 
regarded  it  as  the  supreme  moment  of  his 
life— his  consecration. 

His  own  words  describing  it  are  these: 
''T  felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed,  I  felt 
that  I  did  trust  in  Christ,  Christ  alone  for 


Consecration.  75 

salvation ;  and  an  assurance  was  given  me 
that  He  had  taken  away  my  sins,  even  mine, 
and  saved  me  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death."  This  profession  he  vindicated 
without  wavering,  and  without  weariness 
during  a  period  of  fifty-three  laborious 
years.  He  wandered  everywhere,  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  poor — telling  the  wondrous 
story  of  Christ's  love,  in  a  manner  that 
left  no  doubt  it  was  ''heart  speaking  to 
heart  with  intuitions  kindled  from  above. ' ' 
The  most  important  lesson  that  his  life 
teaches  us  is  the  value  of  whole-hearted, 
complete  consecration  to  God.  The  his- 
tory of  Christianity,  with,  perhaps  the  ex- 
ception of  Paul,  has  not  revealed  to  me  a 
consecration  more  unreserved  and  Christ- 
like than  that  which  the  records  of  John 
Wesley ''s  labors  reveal.  Inconvenience, 
privation,  hardship,  persecution,  and 
mortal  peril  failed  to  swerve  him  from 
his  great  life  purpose.  He  could  look 
calmly  upon  all  the  forces  and  powers  of 


76  Conflict  and  Victory. 

evil  arrayed  against  him  and  say  with  Paul, 
' '  None  of  these  things  move  me. ' ' 

To  show  you  how  implicitly  he  relied 
upon  God,  let  me  give  you  one  of  many 
incidents  that  might  be  given.  In  a  crucial 
hour  in  the  history  of  the  great  Methodist 
movement,  his  brother  Charles  called  upon 
him  to  answer  some  false  accusations  be- 
fore he  left  London  for  a  journey  to  Can- 
terbury in  company  with  his  niece  Sally. 
When  Charles  returned  home  he  thus 
described  to  his  wife  his  interview  with 
John.  ' '  John  is  a  most  extraordinary  man 
— I  placed  before  him  every  evil  conse- 
quence which  could  result  from  his  leaving 
London  just  now— the  stumbling  blocks  he 
might  cast  in  the  way  of  the  weak — the 
advantage  he  gave  to  his  enemies  and  the 
importance  of  his  character.  When  I  had 
finished,  he  replied  with  the  utmost  calm- 
ness, 'When  I  devoted  to  God  my  leisure, 
my  time,  my  fortune  and  my  life,  did  I 


Consecration.  77 

except  my  reputation?  No,  tell  Sally  I  will 
take  her  to  Canterbury  to-morrow.'  " 

Can  any  reasonable  person  doubt  that 
his  consecration  was  the  fontal  fact  of  his 
eventful  life  ?  Every  estimate  of  his  char- 
acter is  unworthy  that  does  not  start  from 
this;  and  no  history  in  his  life  can  give 
satisfaction  in  which  this  fact  is  not  dis- 
tinctly apprehended. 

Such  was  the  man  who  in  the  name  and 
strength  of  the  Almighty  undertook,  over 
a  century  and  a  half  ago,  the  gigantic  task 
of  reforming  what  Archbishop  Seeker 
justly  called  ' '  An  unhappy  age  of  irreligion 
and  libertinism." 

Do  not  think  for  a  moment  that  I  under- 
value the  decision  of  Moses  in  Egypt  when 
by  a  supreme  act  of  faith  "He  refused  to 
be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter; 
choosing  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the 
people  of  God,  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures 
of  sin  for  a  season ;  esteeming  the  reproach 


78  Conflict  and  Victory. 

of  Christ  greater  riches  than  the  treasures 
in  Egypt;  for  he  had  respect  unto  the 
recompense  of  the  reward. ' ' 

Nor  would  I  condemn  Paul  for  persecut- 
ing the  Church,  when  he  assures  us  that 
he  did  so  conscientiously,  believing  that  he 
did  God  service  in  so  doing.  It  was  this 
life  of  conscious  rectitude,  this  desire  to 
please  God  that  led  him  to  ask  the  question 
at  his  conversion,  ''Lord,  what  wilt  Thou 
have  me  to  do?"  And  to  immediately  con- 
secrate his  life  in  service  to  the  Divine 
Master. 

No  sensible  man  will  criticise  adversely 
the  nurture  and  early  life  of  John  Wesley, 
which  for  the  most  part  was  in  the  right 
direction,  lacking  only  the  efficiency  which 
consecration  gave  him. 

The  consecration  for  which  I  plead  must 
be  a  consecration  not  only ' '  for  stream  side 
villages  and  quiet  hours,  but  also  for  the 
realm  of  business  and  for  the  tragic  hearts 
of  towns. ' '    It  must  forbid  no  respectable 


Consecration.  79 

pursuit — but  only  require  that  the  callings 
of  life  be  followed  in  a  new  spirit,  to  the 
honor  of  God  and  to  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind. This  is  what  Tertullian  pleaded  for 
when  he  said,  "We  are  no  Brahmins,  no 
Indian  devotees,  no  hermits,  no  exiles  from 
life.  We  are  mindful  of  the  thanks  we  owe 
to  God,  our  Lord  and  Creator;  we  despise 
not  the  enjoyment  of  his  works;  we  only 
temper  it  that  we  may  avoid  excess  and 
abuse.  We  dwell,  therefore,  with  you  in 
this  world,  not  without  markets  and  fairs, 
not  without  baths,  inns,  shops,  and  every 
kind  of  intercourse — we  carry  on  commerce 
and  war,  agriculture  and  trade  with  you — 
we  take  part  in  your  pursuits  and  give  our 
labor  for  your  use." 

A  few  weeks  ago,  the  Christian  Guardian 
in  an  editorial  on  "Applied  Christianity" 
had  this  to  say  about  General  Booth,  of  the 
Salvation  Army,  and  Dr.  Wilfred  T.  Gren- 
fell,  author  and  missionary  to  the  Deep- 
sea  Fishermen  of  Labrador : 


80  Conflict  and  Victory. 

"General  Booth  and  Dr.  Grenfell  are 
about  as  unlike  as  it  would  be  possible  to 
imagine  two  men  being,  and  yet  in  talking 
with  them  and  listening  to  the  message 
they  had  to  deliver  and  interpreting  it  in 
the  light  of  their  history,  one  can  not  fail 
to  be  impressed  with  a  very  noticeable 
similarity  between  them,  after  all.  Both 
are  men  of  resolute  wills,  of  an  intense 
earnestness  and  enthusiasm,  all  the  more 
remarkable  since  it  exists  alongside  a  pecu- 
liarly practical  and  business-like  habit  of 
thought.  Both  men  strike  one  at  once  as 
being  devout  and  deeply  religious,  but  it  is 
the  devoutness  of  men  of  action  and  the 
religion  of  service  rather  than  of  medita- 
tion or  mere  feeling.  They  both  believe 
thoroughly  in  an  applied  Christianity,  a 
Christianity  that  gives  itself  the  task  of 
working  out  emigration  schemes,  of  estab- 
lishing rescue  homes,  of  running  suicides' 
bureaus,  of  carrying  on  co-operative  stores, 
building  hospitals,  catching  whisky  smug- 


Consecration.  81 

glers,  teaching  arts  and  crafts,  instructing 
in  cookery  and  hygiene  and  sanitation,  of 
helping  to  make  life  brighter  and  happier 
and  less  precarious  for  the  multitudes  who 
seem  to  have  more  than  their  share  to 
carry  of  hardship  and  suffering.  They  be- 
lieve in  an  intensely  practical  religion,  and 
their  lives  have  been,  and  are  to-day,  a 
striking  testimony  to  the  reality  of  their 
faith. 

''The  world  to-day,  irrespective  of  all 
creed  or  class,  honors  them  for  that  testi- 
mony, and  lays  its  tribute,  as  it  has  always 
done,  at  the  feet  of  the  men  with  a  passion 
for  helping  their  fellow-men.  That  is  the 
kind  of  religion  men  have  always  had  re- 
spect and  reverence  for,  at  least  ever  since 
the  time  they  saw  the  Grreat  Son  of  Man 
healing  blind  eyes,  unstopping  deaf  ears, 
and  preaching  His  wonderful  Gospel  of  de- 
liverance to  the  sin-cursed,  demon-pos- 
sessed Galileans.  And  that  is  the  kind  of 
religion  the  world  is  demanding  to-day,  and 
6 


82  Conflict  and  Victory. 

its  demand  is  an  altogether  just  and  right- 
eous one.  Religion  is  something  more  than 
doing  good.  It  has  to  do  with  a  man's 
relation  to  his  God,  and  it  concerns  itself 
with  the  great  and  vital  facts  of  spiritual 
experience.  But  it  is  still  true  that  a  re- 
ligion that  does  not  manifest  itself  in  good 
deeds  that  seek  the  welfare  of  man  from 
all  points  of  view  is  a  fraud,  no  matter 
what  professions  it  may  make.  If  it  can 
be  proved  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
makes  in  any  way  for  inequalities  among 
men,  for  poverty,  for  hardship,  for  suffer- 
ing; yes,  if  it  can  even  be  shown  that  it 
does  not  make  mightily  against  these 
things,  then  the  sooner  we  look  around  for 
something  to  take  its  place  the  better.  If, 
on  the  other  hand,  examination  shows  us 
that  the  fault  is  ours  that  the  Christianity 
of  to-day  is  not  more  helpful,  more  humani- 
tarian, more  socialistic  than  it  is,  then  had 
we  not  better  try  to  drink  more  deeply  of 
the  spirit  of  the  Christ  whose  ministry  of 


Consecration.  83 

healing  and  helping  was  so  full  that  He 
had  to  steal  time  for  prayer  from  the 
all  too  few  hours  of  that  eastern  night? 
The  world  needs  an  applied  Christianity, 
and  for  you  and  me  the  point  of  application 
is  the  point  of  contact  between  our  life  and 
that  of  our  fellow-men.  To  be  truly  Chris- 
tian at  every  point  of  contact  between  our 
lives  and  that  of  our  fellows  is  the  ideal  for 
each  one  who  names  the  name  of  Christ, 
and  to  cherish  any  lower  ideal  is  scarcely 
to  be  Christian  at  all. 

''Though  we  must  hold  to  the  teaching 
that  the  life  and  obedience  and  death  of 
Christ  made  in  a  unique  sense  an  atone- 
ment for  men,  yet  it  is  forever  true  that 
the  world  will  be  saved  only  as  the  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  take  up  and  help  to  bear 
away  the  sin  and  suffering  of  the  world 
as  these  two  remarkable  and  Christ-like 
men  have  been  doing.  The  religion  that  is 
the  most  truly  devout  and  the  most  in- 
tensely spiritual  should  at  the  same  time 


84  ConjUct  and  Victory. 

be  the  most  broadly  humanitarian  and 
brotherly.  And  if  that  is  not  the  type  of 
our  religion  we  are  denying  Christ. ' ' 

"I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  by 
the  mercies  of  God,  to  present  your  bodies 
a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  to  God, 
which  is  your  reasonable  service." 

"  To  serve  the  present  age,  my  calling  to  fulfill, 
O,  may  it  all  my  powers  engage  to  do  my  Master's 
will." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
C  U  L  T  U  E  E 


"And  this,  I  pray,  that  your  love  may  abound  yet 
more  and  more  in  knowledge  and  all  discernment ; 
so  that  ye  may  approve  the  things  that  are  excellent ; 
that  ye  may  be  sincere  and  void  of  offence  unto  the 
day  of  Christ ;  being  filled  vrith  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness, which  are  through  Jesus  Christ,  unto  the  glory 
and  praise  of  God." 


CULTUEE. 

Be  not  conformed  to  this  world  ;  but  be  ye  trans- 
formed by  the  renewing  of  your  mind,  that  ye  may 
prove  what  is  that  good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect, 
will  of  God. — Rom.  xii,  2. 

In  the  previous  chapter  I  endeavored 
to  show  that  consecration  of  life  and  pow- 
ers in  reasonable  service  to  God  is  essential 
to  success  in  our  conflict  with  evil.  As  to 
how  well  I  succeeded  the  reader  must  be  his 
own  judge.  In  this  chapter  my  object  is 
to  emphasize  the  efficiency  of  Culture,  and 
assign  to  it  its  proper  place  in  the  inevi- 
table conflict  of  good  and  evil. 

Before  we  can  transform  society  and 
overcome  evil  we  must  ourselves  be  trans- 
formed. How  shall  this  be  done?  By  the 
renewing  of  our  minds.  This  necessitates 
the  further  inquiry,  How  shall  we  renew  a 
87 


88  Conflict  and  Victory. 

mind?    Just  as  we  renew  a  muscle — by  ex- 
ercise and  use. 

"Be  thou  an  ensample  to  them  that  believe,  in 
word,  in  manner  of  life,  in  love,  in  faith,  in  purity. 
Till  I  come,  give  heed  to  reading,  to  exhortation,  to 
teaching.    Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  thee." 

We  bring  with  us  into  this  world  a  new 
mind  which,  if  we  are  energetic  and  genu- 
inely progressive,  will  be  many  times 
renewed  in  the  course  of  a  life-time.  Our 
first  renewing  is  in  the  home  and  in  the 
public  school,  where  we  master  a  language 
so  as  to  be  able  to  use  it  in  the  practical 
affairs  of  life.  We  give  this  renewed  new 
mind  another  renewal  in  the  High  School, 
the  College,  and  the  Post-graduate  Course ; 
and  with  each  renewing,  there  is  a  corre- 
sponding transformation  of  life,  character, 
and  influence. 

There  is  a  very  marked  contrast  between 
the  man  of  culture  and  the  illiterate  man. 
The  mental  faculties  of  the  one  have  been 
trained    and    discipUned    until    they    are 


Culture.  89 

strong  and  energetic;  those  of  the  other 
have  become  atrophied  through  disuse. 
The  mind  of  the  one  is  in  a  healthy,  vigor- 
ous condition,  while  that  of  the  other  is 
practically  dead.  The  one  is  an  illustration 
of  transformation  by  mental  renewing,  the 
other  of  deformation  through  its  neglect. 
Hence  we  do  not  wonder  that  Peter  should 
give  us  this  injunction,  ' '  Add  to  your  faith 
knowledge,"  or  that  Paul  should  condemn 
a  zeal  that  is  not  according  to  knowledge. 

Another  question  that  confronts  us  here 
is,  why  this  mental  renewing?  The  answer 
is  at  hand.  It  is, '  '■  That  we  may  prove  what 
is  that  good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect 
will  of  God. ' '  Notice  the  three-fold  charac- 
teristic of  the  will  of  God — good,  accept- 
able, perfect. 

At  the  risk  of  being  criticised  adversely 
for  my  exegesis,  I  affirm  that  anything  that 
will  lift  humanity,  be  it  ever  so  little,  out 
of  pure  devilishness  is  God's  good  will  to 
the  race ;  because  it  is  force  exerted  in  the 


90  Conflict  and  Victory. 

right  direction.  If  the  small  lift  is  all  that 
conditions  will  warrant,  or  circumstances 
permit,  it,  then,  constitutes  God's  accept- 
able will.  Our  objective  point  must  ever 
be  the  perfect  will  of  God,  toward  this  we 
must  labor  with  unwearied  zeal  and  active 
love,  and  for  this  blessed  consummation  we 
are  taught  to  ever  pray, ' '  Thy  will  be  done 
in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. ' ' 

It  requires  a  trained,  capable  mind  to 
discriminate  between  that  which  is  ephem- 
eral in  the  line  of  reform,  and  that  which 
is  of  permanent  value  to  the  race;  hence 
the  necessity  for  culture  as  a  factor  in  this 
conflict. 

How  can  any  man  judge  an  event,  or 
movement  which  has  its  causes  far  back  in 
history,  who  has  never  carefully  studied 
history?  "What  to  him  is  the  record  of  the 
past,  with  its  moral  interregnums,  its 
renaissance  and  splendid  reforms?  Simply 
nothing.  His  mental  horizon  is  bounded 
by  his  own  little  experience  in  life.    Such 


Culture.  91 

a  man  is,  clearly,  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  disqualified  for  capable,  leadership, 
and  is,  generally  speaking,  a  very  hard 
man  to  lead.  He  is  almost  sure  to  fail  in 
appreciating  the  transformation  his  lead- 
ers are  endeavoring  to  bring  about.  Such 
persons  make  the  work  of  the  reformer 
tedious,  and  taxes  to  the  limit  of  endurance 
his  patience. 

We  have  seen  the  necessity  of  consecra- 
tion in  the  lives  of  Moses,  Paul,  and  Wes- 
ley. The  reader  will  please  bear  with  me 
while  we  consider  what  culture  did  for 
these  three  transcendently  great  men. 

Moses,  the  greatest  character  in  the 
drama  of  the  Exodus,  was  schooled  in  all 
the  learning  of  the  Egyptians — a  splendid 
intellectual  foundation.  To  this  was  added 
the  wilderness  training  for  forty  years  be- 
fore his  great  life  work  began.  To  some 
those  forty  years  might  seem  wasted,  but 
they  were  not.  They  were  only  a  continu- 
ation  of  needful  discipline.     Moses   had 


92  Conflict  cmd  Victory. 

learned  much,  but  he  had  need  to  learn 
more,  so  God  took  him  from  the  schools 
of  Egypt  and  placed  him  in  the  great 
University  of  Nature  for  post-graduate 
work,  where  he  would  have  time,  solitude, 
and  the  desert  for  his  teachers.  What 
could  they  teach  him  ?  The  value  of  knowl- 
edge already  gainea.  It  was  well  for  him 
to  be  educated  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians ;  but  wisdom  improves  by  keep- 
ing, needing  time,  meditation,  and  reflec- 
tion to  ripen  it.  He  would  also  receive  new 
knowledge.  True,  he  had  few  books,  if  any, 
of  man's  making;  but  the  book  of  Nature 
in  its  solitude  and  grandeur  invited  study, 
and  the  knowledge  of  the  desert,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  palace,  would  be  needful  to 
him  by  and  by.  Then,  too,  he  was  a  little 
rash  when  he  graduated  from  Egypt,  and 
his  wilderness  training  not  only  made  him 
a  wiser  man,  but  a  better  man — for  there 
it  was  that  he  learned  to  believe  and  trust 
in  the  great  ''I  Am."    That  enforced  Ufe 


Culture.  93 

in  the  desert  became  as  important  a  part  of 
the  training  of  Moses  as  his  life  at  Avis,. 
It  acquainted  him  with  the  wilderness  of 
the  wandering,  its  resources,  mode  of  life, 
and  those  other  children  of  Abraham,  the 
Midianites,  where  he  found  a  wife  of  the 
seed  of  Abraham,  and  where  he  met 
Jethro,  whose  wise  counsels  led  to  an  im- 
portant iDolicy  for  all  the  future  of  Israel. 
His  associates  in  Midian  and  mode  of  life, 
simple  and  unartificial,  were  a  wholesome 
correction  to  the  luxury  of  Egypt;  while 
his  occupation,  caring  for  Jethro 's  flocks, 
on  that  wild  Sinaitic  peninsula,  would  de- 
velop watchfulness,  skill,  caution,  self-re- 
liance, bravery,  and  tenderness — qualities 
indispensable  in  a  leader.  Without  this 
preparation,  he  never  could  have  become 
the  great  prose  writer,  the  exalted  poet, 
the  remarkable  theologian,  the  inspired 
philosopher  and  prophet,  the  wise,  just, 
patriotic  statesman,  and  peerless  leader  of 
his  people. 


94  Conflict  omd  Yictory. 

In  the  case  of  Paul  we  have  a  striking 
illustration  of  the  transforming  power  of 
culture.  Yonder  he  starts  out  from  the 
home  of  an  exiled  Jew,  "bent  on  making 
the  most  of  himself.  In  imagination  I  see 
him,  early  in  life,  mastering  in  his  native 
town  a  G-reek  philosophy  that  rivalled  that 
of  Athens — conquering  and  comprehending 
Roman  Law — casting  himself  at  the  feet  of 
Gamaliel  with  his  whole  intellectual  being 
absorbed  in  the  study  of  Hebrew  Scripture 
and  Rabbinical  literature. ' '  He  began  his 
great  life'  work  with  intellectual  powers 
developed  and  disciplined  in  the  best  of 
schools,  and  under  the  most  accomjjlished 
teachers.  Like  Moses,  he  was  developed  on 
his  moral  side,  having,  as  one  has  very 
fittingly  observed,  "An  unusual  measure  of 
candor,  unselfishness,  purity,  courage,  and 
rectitude."  Coleridge  pays  this  tribute  to 
his  scholarship:  "I  think  Saint  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  the  most  pro- 
found work  in  existence."    In  his  single- 


Cult/u/re.  95 

ness  of  aim  and  persistency  of  purpose,  he 
stands  forth  upon  history's  page  a  unique 
example  for  us.  Without  his  marvelous 
preparation,  how  the  pure  gold  would  have 
been  dimmed,  and  life's  purposes  have  lan- 
guished ! 

The  utilitarian  might  say,  *'0f  what 
value  is  Roman  Law  to  a  Jewish  youth,  or 
Greek  philosophy  to  an  unknown  boy? 
But  wait  a  moment;  that  youth  shall  yet 
confound  the  Roman  officer  by  his  superior 
knowledge  of  Roman  Law,  and  his  claim 
to  Roman  citizenship.  That  insignificant 
looking  Jewish  boy  shall  yet  declare  to  the 
Greek  philosophers,  teachers,  and  poets  of 
the  Areopagus,  the  Infinite  Father  of  all, 
and  the  sublime  doctrine  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man.''  His  consecrated  culture, 
and  practical  sagacity  shall  yet  prevent 
other  leaders  from  making  the  early 
Church  a  Judaic  institution,  cumbered  by 
tradition  and  ceremonialism. 

When    we    take   into   consideration   his 


96  Conflict  and  Victory. 

native  qualities,  his  superior  attainments, 
and  his  wonderful  consecration,  we  are  not 
surprised  that  as  he  stood  in  yonder  pro- 
consular court,  though  a  prisoner  in  bonds, 
his  words  were  so  powerful  and  convincing 
that  even  Felix  trembled,  and  Agrippa  was 
almost  persuaded  to  be  a  Christian. 

John  Wesley  was  an  earnest,  thorough 
student  from  the  very  beginning— a  logi- 
-cian,  philosopher,  theologian,  and  leader  of 
men  when  only  twenty-three  years  of  age. 
His  voyage  to  America  gave  him  time  for 
reflection  and  meditation,  and  added  to  his 
classic  lore  and  logic  a  needful  knowledge 
of  men  and  things.  An  able  critic  in  paint- 
ing, poetry,  music,  classics,  literature,  phi- 
losophy, and  theology,  he  was  the  peer  in 
his  intellectual  endowments  of  any  literary 
man  of  that  most  literary  age. 

Of  what  value  are  all  these  accomplish- 
ments to  a  man  against  whom  every  church 
door  in  England  is   closed,   and   against 


Culture.  97 

whom  ''Newspaper  writers,  merciless  crit- 
ics, ponderous  professors,  and  churchly 
dignitaries  aimed  their  heaviest  lances  of 
pamphlet,  book,  and  stately  treatise?" 
His  thorough  preparation  enabled  him  to 
cross  swords  with  any  living  man  and  con- 
front calmly  and  confidently  any  foe;  and 
in  the  realm  of  theology  to  differentiate  be- 
tween the  effete  and  that  which  is  of  per- 
manent value. 

In  proof  of  this,  let  me  refer  you  to  the 
words  of  Dr.  Douglas,  one  of  Canada's 
most  scholarly,  eloquent  divines  of  the  last 
century.  In  addressing  a  class  of  theolog- 
ical students,  he  has  this  to  say  about 
Methodist  Theology :  ' '  Who  has  ever  mas- 
tered it?  For  twenty  years  I  have  been 
endeavoring  to  teach  it,  and  yet  I  am  stand- 
ing as  on  the  margin  of  apprehending  its 
sublimity.  The  more  profoundly  I  look  at 
it,  the  more  does  its  grandeur  appear. 
Every    theological    system    formulated 

7 


98  Confiict  and  Victory. 

through  the  ages  has  contributed  its  best 
elements  while  their  fallacies  have  been  re- 
pudiated. 

"It  accepts  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of 
sin,  but  rejects  its  theory  of  decrees.  It 
accepts  the  Pelagian  doctrine  of  the  will, 
but  rejects  its  denial  of  human  depravity 
and  the  necessity  of  spiritual  aid.  It  ac- 
cepts in  part  the  moral  influence  theory  of 
Abelard,  and  the  substitutional  theory  of 
Anselm  relative  to  the  work  of  Christ,  but 
utterly  rejects  the  rationalism  of  the 
former  and  the  quid  pro  quo  of  the  latter. 
It  accepts  the  Perfectionist  theory  and 
deep  spirituality  taught  by  Pascal  and 
the  Port  Royalists,  but  rejects  their  Quiet- 
ist  teachings,  which  destroy  all  the  benevo- 
lent activities  of  Christian  life.  It  accepts 
the  doctrine  of  universal  redemption  as 
taught  by  the  early  Arminians,  but  is  care- 
ful to  reject  the  semi-Pelagian  laxity 
which  marks  the  teachings  of  the  later 
school  of  Remonstrants.    It  joins  with  the 


Cultu/re.  99 

several  Socinian  and  Universalist  schools 
in  exalting  the  benevolence  and  mercy  of 
God,  but  never  falters  in  its  declaration  of 
the  perpetuity  of  punishment.  Magnifying 
the  efficiency  of  Divine  grace  with  the  most 
earnest  of  Calvinists,  it  at  the  same  time 
asserts  that  salvation  is  dependent  on  the 
volitions  of  a  will  that  is  radically  free. 
Generous  as  God's  own  sunlight,  it  looks 
every  man  in  the  face  and  says,  'Christ 
died  for  you.'  It  publishes  the  glad  evan- 
gel of  an  indwelling  and  witnessing  Spirit 
in  the  heart.  It  holds  out  the  possibility 
of  a  victory  over  the  apostate  nature  by 
asserting  a  sanctification  which  is  entire, 
and  a  perfection  in  love  which  is  not  ulti- 
mate and  final,  but  progressive  in  its  de- 
velopment forever." 

In  the  great  and  massive  thought,  the 
burning  contemplations  which  he  gave  to 
the  world,  we  behold  the  profound  scholar, 
the  genuine  philosopher,  the  man  of  cul- 
ture. 


100  Conflict  and  Victory, 

It  is  noteworthy  that  in  each  of  these 
three  great  characters,  the  decision  for  God 
and  righteousness  was  made  in  the  early 
prime  of  manhood — made,  not  by  hermits 
who  had  not  tasted  life's  cnp  of  pleasure, 
nor  by  sated  worldlings  in  whose  month  it 
had  turned  to  bitterness— made  when  life 
was  in  its  summer  and  they  were  encom- 
passed with  its  gladness  and  music  and 
flowers — with  everything  at  hand  which  it 
is  deemed  most  costly  to  surrender,  they 
stepped  forth  in  the  sight  of  the  world — 
took  the  crown  of  their  manliness  and  cast 
it  humbly  at  the  feet  of  their  Lord.  This 
created  them  champions  of  the  liberties  of 
men  and  made  their  lives  sublime. 

"The  word  had  breath,  and  wrought 

With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds, 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds. 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought." 

Reader,  the  greatness  of  your  achieve- 
ments will  be  measured  by  the  inherent 


Culture.  101 

greatness  of  your  personality.  Whatever 
is  possible  to  you,  complete  consecration  to 
God  will  bring  out.  I  do  not  say  you  will 
rival  Moses,  Paul,  or  Wesley  in  what  you 
may  be  able  to  bring  to  pass;  that  would 
be  vicious  fanaticism.  In  these  men  we  find 
greatness  of  an  unusual  order.  Theirs  was 
a  greatness  of  personality,  of  preparation, 
and  of  consecration.  Is  it  to  be  wondered 
at  that  their  achievements  were  corre- 
spondingly great? 

Milton  says,  ''The  end  of  learning  is  to 
know  God,  and  out  of  that  knowledge  to 
love  Him  and  to  imitate  Him,  as  we  may 
the  nearest,  by  possessing  our  souls  of  true 
virtue. "  It  is  thus  that  culture  when  con- 
secrated to  God  helps  us  to  overcome  the 
evil  within  us  and  install  in  our  hearts  a 
love  of  righteousness. 

There  is  at  the  present  writing  a  man 
in  America  who,  because  of  his  champion- 
ship of  civic  and  moral  righteousness,  has 
become  a  recognized  world  force.    I  refer 


102  Confict  cmd  Victory. 

to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  whose  consecrated 
culture  enables  him  to  rightly  estimate  the 
forces  of  good  and  evil.  This  is  plain  from 
his  own  words.  ' '  The  forces  that  tend  for 
evil  are  great  and  terrible,  but  the  forces 
of  truth  and  love  and  courage  and  honesty 
and  generosity  and  sympathy  are  also 
stronger  than  ever  before." 

In  this  conflict  the  contribution  of  men 
possessed  of  Christian  culture  can  hardly 
be  overestimated.  I  think  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  me  to  overstate  it.  With 
Bishop  Newman,  I  believe  ^'A  university 
training  is  the  great  ordinary  means  to  a 
great  but  ordinary  end.  It  aims  at  raising 
the  intellectual  tone  of  society ;  at  cultivat- 
ing the  public  mind,  at  purifying  the  na- 
tional taste,  at  supplying  true  principles 
to  popular  enthusiasm  and  freer  aims  to 
popular  aspiration,  at  giving  enlargement 
and  sobriety  to  the  ideas  of  the  age,  facili- 
tating the  exercise  of  political  power,  and 
refining  the  intercourse  of  private  life.'* 


Culture.  103 

"Leap  forth,  O  thought,  in  man  divine, 
And  progress  wake  in  every  clime. 
The  right  is  thine !  No  chains  can  bind. 
Thy  onward  march  to  lift  the  mind. 
To  see  the  truth  so  bright  and  fair, — 
A  guardian  angel  debonair. 
Lift  thou,  upon  thy  mighty  arms. 
The  race  of  man  to  holier  charm.s, — 
To  loftier  truths  along  the  line. 
That  makes  this  age  in  luster  shine. 

Leap  forth,  O  thought,  to  freedom  born. 
Though  thou  dost  meet  the  tyrant's  scorn. 
Inspire  to  action  true  and  bold, 
To  gain  for  man  the  strength  to  hold. 
His  rightful  place  as  God  decreed ! 
And  ever  may  the  power  recede. 
That  seeks  in  thraldom  man  to  bind. 
And  ever  leads  with  forces  blind." 


CHAPTER  V. 
CO-OPERATION. 


"They  helped  every  one  his  neighbor ;  and  every 
one  said  to  his  brother,  Be  of  good  courage." 

"For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members, 
and  all  the  members  of  the  body,  being  many,  are 
one  body ;  so  also  is  Christ." 

"And  He  gave  some  to  be  apostles;  and  some 
prophets;  and  some,  evangelists;  and  some,  pastors 
and  teachers ;  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  unto 
the  work  of  ministering,  unto  the  building  up  of  the 
body  of  Christ:  till  we  all  attain  unto  the  unity  of 
the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  full-grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ." 


CO-OPERATION. 

For  I  say,  through  the  grace  given  unto  me,  to 
every  man  that  is  among  you,  not  to  think  of  himself 
more  highly  than  he  ought  to  thinlc;  but  to  think 
soberly,  according  as  God  hath  dealt  to  every  man 
the  measure  of  faith. 

For  as  we  have  many  members  in  one  body,  and 
all  members  have  not  the  same  office:  so  we,  being 
many,  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  every  one  members 
one  of  another. 

Having  then  gifts  differing  according  to  the  grace 

that  is  given  unto  us,  whether  prophecy,  let  ws  prophesy 

according  to  the   proportion   of   faith;    or   ministry, 

let  us  wait  on  our  ministering;   or  he  that  teacheth, 

on  teaching;  or  he  that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation: 

he  that  giveth,  let  him  do  it  with  simplicity;  he  that 

ruleth,  with  diligence;  he  that  sheweth  mercy,  with 

cheerfulness. 

Let  love  be  without  dissimulation. — Rom.  xii.  3-9. 

After  we  have  overcome  the  evil  within 
by  consecration  and  culture,  we  are  to  as- 
107 


I 


108  ConjUct  and  Victory. 

sist  in  its  overthrow  without.  The  internal 
battle  fits  us  for  the  external  conflict.  We 
are  saved,  not  for  happiness,  but  for  serv- 
ice. Every  saved  man  is  a  commissioned 
man,  and  finds  happiness  in  the  carrying 
out  of  his  commission,  for  ''Joy's  soul  lies 
in  the  doing." 

In  Paul's  day  he  saw  the  necessity  for 
combined  effort  on  the  part  of  the  forces 
of  righteousness.  He  found  his  work  ham- 
pered by  an  exclusive  partisan  spirit  which 
he  branded  with  the  stamjD  of  carnality. 
One  faction  said, ' '  I  am  of  Paul ; ' '  another, 
' '  I  am  of  Apollos ; ' '  and  a  third,  ' '  I  am  of 
Cephas."  To  which  Paul  made  answer, 
''Who,  then,  is  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas 
but  ministers  by  whom  we  believed?" 

While  condemning  the  partisan  spirit,  he 
showed  them,  also,  that  their  highest  good 
was  the  result  of  co-ojDeration,  for  did  he 
not  say,  ' '  I  have  planted,  Apollos  watered, 
God  gave  the  increase?"  "We  are  labor- 
ers together  with  God." 


Co-aperation.  109 

As  Christians  we  are  in  this  world  to 
contribute  what  we  can  toward  the  build- 
ing up  of  Christ's  kingdom.  Anything  that 
will  tend  in  this  direction  should  receive 
our  sympathy  and  co-operation.  This  does 
not  in  any  sense  conflict  with  loyalty  to  the 
local  Church,  nor  should  it  cause  us  to  relax 
our  effort  in  making  the  Church  to  which 
we  belong  as  efficient,  strong,  and  influ- 
ential as  possible.  The  local  Church  is 
our  college  for  personal  training,  but  the 
world  is  our  university  for  post-graduate 
work  where  the  altruistic  spirit  is  to  pre- 
dominate. The  home,  the  Church,  the 
world  have  all  strong  claims  upon  us  which 
can  not  be  ignored  without  doing  positive 
injury  to  the  kingdom  of  righteousness. 
No  man  can  be  reasonably  censured  for 
true  loyalty  to  his  home,  or  his  Church; 
neither  can  any  man  be  exonerated,  from 
the  Christian  point  of  view,  who  does  not 
have  a  deep  interest  in  the  reformation  of 
the  world.     Jesus  said,  "I  will  build  My 


110  Conflict  and  Victory. 

Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  it."  This  utterance  of  the 
greatest  authority  is  an  assurance  to  us 
that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  earth 
is  the  greatest  potent  factor  in  overcoming 
evil  with  good. 

The  co-operation  for  which  I  plead  is 
what  John  Wesley  had  in  view  when  he 
said,  "I  want  a  league  offensive  and  de- 
fensive, with  every  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ."  My  attitude  is  one  with  Bishop 
Simpson  in  the  declaration,  "We  live  to 
make  our  own  Church  a  power  for  good  in 
the  land,  but  we  will  live  to  love  every 
other  Church  that  exalts  our  Christ." 
Were  such  a  spirit  possessed  by  every 
individual  Christian,  what  an  invincible 
power  the  Church  of  Christ  would  become 
in  the  overthrow  of  evil.  How  soon  the 
giant  wrongs  that  strive  defiantly  in  our 
civilization  would  be  smitten  and  die. 

Not  only  did  Paul  see  in  his  day  the 
danger  of  the  partisan  spirit  in  religion, 


Co-operation.  Ill 

but  he,  also,  recognized  another  danger  to 
which  he  calls  our  special  attention  in  the 
chapter  now  under  consideration.  I  refer 
to  egotistical  thinking.  His  admonition  is 
this :  ' '  For  I  say,  through  the  grace  given 
unto  me,  to  every  man  that  is  among  you, 
not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  than 
he  ought  to  think." 

Why  the  division  of  Christendom  with 
the  resultant  loss  of  energy  as  seen  in  the 
Greek  Church,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  the  Established  Church  of  England? 
Is  it  not  due,  largely,  to  thinking  too  highly 
of  themselves  and  their  systems  that  they 
do  not  co-operate  earnestly  and  lovingly 
with  each  other  in  every  good  word  and 
workf 

Egotistical  thinking  creates,  or  tries  to 
create,  a  spiritual  aristocracy.  It  is  the 
mother  of  intolerance,  the  prolific  cause  of 
schism  in  the  body  of  Christ.  It  exalts 
cant  and  bigotry,  promotes  jealousy  and 
strife,  and  leads  to  unseemly  competition 


112  Corvflict  and  Victory. 

and  waste  of  energy.  It  is  opposed  to  the 
spirit  and  teachings  of  Christ  and  the 
apostles.  In  His  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  Christ  unhesitatingly  condemns 
the  exclusive  ecclesiasticism  which  passes 
by  on  the  other  side,  and  gives  His  unquali- 
fied approval  to  the  nonconformity  which 
symi3athizes  with  and  ministers  to  the  woes 
of  men;  to  that  love  of  humanity  which 
receives  and  treats  the  stranger  as  though 
he  were  a  bosom  friend. 

Paul's  cure  for  this  egotistical  thinking 
is  "  To  think  soberly,  acording  as  God  hath 
dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith." 
"When  we  get  down  to  sober  thinking,  we 
discover  the  reason  for  co-operation.  It  is 
because  we  are  ''members  one  of  another," 
and  have  gifts  that  diifer.  This  he  illus- 
trates by  his  reference  to  the  body  with  its 
many  members  which  he  compares  to  the 
body  of  Christ.  Hence  his  exhortation  to 
all  grades  of  workers  to  pursue  their  call- 
ings earnestly,  but  co-operatively.    Let  us 


Co-operation.  113 

not  club  the  other  fellow  because  he  will 
not  ride  our  hobby-horse,  or  in  other  words, 
"Let  love  be  without  dissimulation." 

"Shall  I  ask  the  brave  soldier  who  fights  by  my  side 
In  the  cause  of  humanity,  if  our  creeds  agree?" 

''"When  Jesus  came,"  says  one,  "He 
found  the  sacred  and  the  secular  fenced 
off  as  two  distinct  provinces.  This  sepa- 
rating wall  he  threw  down  and  consecrated 
the  whole  sweep  of  human  existence. ' '  His 
teaching  makes  everything  that  is  right  and 
necessary  to  be  done  religious.  Recogniz- 
ing the  law  of  social  unity,  Paul  follows 
his  Master  in  this  particular.  Hence  his 
message  is,  not  only  to  the  men  of  faith, 
as  prophets,  evangelists,  humanitarians, 
and  preachers,  but  to  Christian  men  in 
secular  pursuits ;  the  teachers,  the  judges, 
and  the  rulers.  These  he  exhorts  to  be  de- 
voted, cheerful,  and  diligent.  In  this  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  he  declares  that  "the 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  Grod,"  and 


114  Conflict  and  Victory. 

ought  not  to  be  resisted,  inasmuch  as  their 
true  purpose  is  not  to  terrify  the  good,  but 
to  suppress  the  evil.  In  harmony  with  this 
position  he  exhorts  the  Philippians  to 
''think  on  whatsoever  things  are  true, 
honest,  just,  pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  re- 
port;" an  exhortation  which,  if  followed, 
will  make  every  true,  progressive  Christian 
a  sociological  student. 

Let  us  consider  his  advice  a  little  more 
in  detail.  His  "Whatsoever  things  are 
true"  opens  to  us  the  door  to  all  that  is 
true  in  science,  philosophy,  and  religion, 
and  bids  us  enter  and  possess.  His  ' '  What- 
soever things  are  honest ' '  sends  the  Chris- 
tian out  into  the  commercial  world,  as  the 
representative  of  integrity  and  upright- 
ness. "Wliatsoever  things  are  just"  takes 
him  into  the  realm  of  politics  and  legisla- 
tion as  the  advocate  of  right  relations  be- 
tween man  and  man.  * '  Whatsoever  things 
are  pure"  sends  him  everywhere  in  the  in- 
terests of  persona],  social,  and  religious 


Co-operation,  115 

purity.  ''Whatsoever  things  are  lovely" 
calls  him  to  a  study  of  the  beautiful  and 
the  development  of  his  esthetic  nature. 
''Whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report" 
lifts  him  out  of  the  pessimistic  rut,  and 
sends  him  forth  to  sing  his  optimistic  song 
of  progress  and  hope  to  the  world.  His 
' '  If  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise"  condemns  censure  and  complaint, 
and  invites  to  thanksgiving  and  praise. 
Surely  this  is  a  platform  broad  enough  for 
any  thinking  man.  He  who  measures  up 
to  this  standard  will  be  upright  in  life,  pro- 
found in  scholarship,  and  genuinely  cath- 
olic in  spirit.  Were  all  Christians  pos- 
sessed of  this  ideal,  it  would  secure  to  the 
world  a  Christianity  sane,  progressive, 
robust,  and  Christlike. 

The  fact  that  we  are  members  one  of 
another,  lays  upon  each  an  obligation  to 
consider  the  welfare  of  all.  The  ideal  of 
the  poet,  "When  all  men's  good  shall  be 
each  man's  rule,"  is  being  realized  as  men 


116        ^         Conflict  and  Victory. 

are  brought  to  see  the  need  of  obedience 
to  the  law  of  social  responsibility.  When 
this  law  obtains,  prosperity  comes ;  where 
it  is  ignored,  or  disregarded,  the  result  is 
invariably  injurious,  sometimes  disastrous. 
Deny  the  fact  and  ignore  the  law,  and  it 
may  be  brought  home  to  us  in  a  manner 
least  expected.  It  is  sometimes  a  serious 
thing  to  have  an  unfortunate  prove  his 
brotherhood  by  demonstration. 

A  case  of  this  kind  occurred  in  England 
in  1697,  in  what  is  known  as  the  ''Maid- 
stone Epidemic. ' '  On  the  twenty-eighth  of 
August  in  that  year,  there  came  to  Maid- 
stone, a  town  in  one  of  the  hop-growing 
districts,  two  hundred  hop-pickers  from 
London,  bringing  with  them  about  three 
hundred  children.  They  took  up  their 
quarters  in  the  hopper-houses  provided  for 
them,  some  of  which  were  situated  in  a 
meadow  and  constructed  with  little  regard 
for  sanitary  requirements  or  common 
cleanliness.    The  drainage  of  this  meadow 


Co-(yperation.  ill  7 

passed  into  a  stream  from  which  a  part  of 
the  town  of  Maidstone  was  supplied  with 
water.  In  about  fifteen  days  after  the  ar- 
rival of  these  hop-pickers,  an  epidemic  of 
typhoid  fever  broke  out  in  that  part  of  the 
town  supplied  by  water  infected  by  the 
drainage  of  the  meadow  above  referred  to. 
It  spread  so  rapidly  that  within  a  month 
over  1,200  cases  had  been  reported. 

Public  sentiment  in  Maidstone  strongly 
condemned  both  the  water  company  and 
the  Urban  Council  for  permitting  the 
source  of  their  water  supply  to  be  pol- 
luted in  such  a  manner.  It  was  simply  a 
notable,  concrete  illustration  of  Paul's  ab- 
stract truth  that ' '  None  of  us  liveth  to  him- 
self, and  none  of  us  dieth  to  himself." 

This  incident  shows  us  how  these  hop- 
pickers  proved  their  brotherhood  and 
demonstrated  the  law  of  social  responsi- 
bility to  the  people  of  Maidstone  in  a  way 
that  they  will  not  soon  forget.  A  little 
care  on  the  part  of  society  for  their  com- 


118  Conjlict  and  Victory. 

fort,  and  a  little  attention  to  the  sanitary- 
conditions  of  their  temporary  quarters 
would  have  been  vastly  cheaper  than  the 
ignoring  policy  pursued.  A  little  thought- 
ful, brotherly  co-operation  of  the  hop- 
growers,  water  company,  and  the  Urban 
Council  might  easily  have  prevented  this 
disaster. 

If  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  to  come  to 
this  world,  the  Christ  spirit  must  obtain 
in  the  social,  as  well  as  in  the  religious 
life  of  man.  The  place  where  this  spirit 
must  show  itself  is  ''where  men  are  buy- 
ing and  selling,  employing  and  being  em- 
ployed, struggling,  sinning,  suffering  and 
dying.  The  field  is  the  world.'*  ''Dr. 
Brown, ' '  says  the  editor  of  the  Circle, ' '  pre- 
dicts that  the  dominant  note  of  the  next 
revival  will  be  that  of  social  responsibility, 
and  that  the  two  main  texts  will  be,  'We 
are  all  members  one  of  another, '  and  '  One 
is  our  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  we  are 
brethren.'  " 


Co-operation.  119 

What  co-operative  Christianity  may  be 
and  do  for  society  at  large  is  clearly  seen 
in  the  history  of  the  Nonconformist 
Churches  of  England  for  the  past  hun- 
dred years.  If  we  go  back  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  find 
these  Churches  confronted  })y  conditions 
discouraging  beyond  measure.  The  field 
was  pre-empted  by  a  State  Church,  rich, 
strong  and  influential,  but  exceedingly  in- 
tolerant. Her  revenues  from  the  State 
Treasury  were  large,  and  her  interference 
in  political  matters  was  decidedly  selfish 
and  pronounced.  It  seemed  utterly  impos- 
sible for  nonconformity  to  gain  a  strong 
footing  or  prestige  in  England.  The  battle 
was  that  of  a  weakling  with  a  giant  who 
determined  to  monopolize  everything  in  the 
interest  of  self.  The  relative  strength  of 
influence,  according  to  an  editorial  by  Dr. 
Nicol,  in  the  British  Weekly,  was  some- 
thing like  80  to  20  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century.    This  gradually  changed,  standing 


120  Conflict  and  Victory. 

a  little  later  70  to  30,  then  60  to  40,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  century  it  stood,  accord- 
ing to  this  authority,  50  to  50.  Eecent 
events,  such  as  the  Education  Bill  and 
kindred  reforms,  would  indicate  that  the 
arrogant  State  Church  had  met  her  equal 
in  Nonconformity,  as  regards  influence  and 
prestige.  How  has  this  growth  on  the  part 
of  the  Nonconformist  Churches  been  se- 
cured? By  co-operation.  Throughout  the 
century  they  stood  together,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  and  brought  a  united  influence 
to  bear  upon  every  question  and  reform 
movement  of  the  day.  They  espoused  the 
cause  of  civic  righteousness  in  the  interest 
of  the  people.  They  were  the  friends  of 
free  public  schools,  political  purity,  and  of 
a  larger  liberty.  Their  motto  might  well 
have  been  ' '  The  greatest  good  of  the  great- 
est number."  This  was  done,  not  in  the 
interest  of  a  selfish  ecclesiasticism,  but  of 
a  broad  and  generous  patriotism,  as  the 
tribunes  of  the  people.    It  was  thus  that 


Co-operation.  121 

they  secured  the  respect  and  confidence  of 
the  people,  which  is  a  great  heritage  of 
blessing  to  them  to-day.  The  history  of 
the  century  can  not  be  truthfully  written 
without  recognizing  nonconformity  as  an 
influential  factor  in  the  social  progress  of 
the  nation. 

It  seems  a  little  unfortunate  that  Dr. 
Campbell,  of  City  Temple,  London,  should 
be  engaged  just  now  in  a  bitter  controversy 
over  theological  questions  when  so  many 
issues  concerning  applied  Christianity  are 
demanding  a  thoughtful  consideration.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  this  apparently  un- 
necessary strife  will  not  sow  the  seeds  of 
dissension  among  their  ranks  and  weaken 
the  influence  of  nonconformity  in  England, 
which  would  be  little  short  of  a  calamity  at 
the  present  time. 

There  are  not  wanting  in  the  history  of 
the  Christian  Church  of  America  illustra- 
tions of  the  beneficent  results  of  co-opera- 
tive endeavor.     Giant  wrongs  have  been 


122  Conflict  cmd  Vtctory. 

met  and  overthrown  by  the  united  efforts 
of  the  friends  of  righteousness.  We  see 
this  in  the  abolition  of  slavery,  first  in 
Canada  and  later  in  the  United  States ;  in 
the  banishment  of  the  Louisiana  State  Lot- 
tery, and  in  the  overthrow  of  the  army 
canteen.  These  mighty  evils  all  succumbed 
to  the  united  forces  of  righteousness  war- 
ring in  the  interest  of  the  people's  highest 
good. 

As  these  have  gone  so  must  also  go  the 
iniquity  of  child  labor,  impure  literature, 
vicious  narcotics,  political  corruption,  the 
traffic  in  strong  drink,  and  every  form  of 
tyranny.  This  will  come  to  pass  when  man 
realizes  that  he  is  his  brother's  keeper  and 
meets  cheerfully  and  courageously  all  the 
demands  of  social  and  religious  responsi- 
bility. 

"How  many  lifted  hands  still  plead 
Along  life's  way; 
The  old  sad  story  of  human  need 
Reads  on  for  aye. 


Co-(yperation.  123 

But  let  us  follow  the  Savior's  plan — 
Love  unstinted  for  every  man, 
Content,  if  at  most  the  world  should  say, 
'He  helped  his  brother  along  the  way.'  " 

While  at  work  on  this  chapter,  my  at- 
tention was  called  to  the  following  news 
item  which  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the 
London  Advertiser  of  April  11,  1907 : 

' '  The  greatest  evangelical  movement  that 
has  ever  been  projected  was  the  subject  of 
discussion  at  the  International  Laymen's 
Conference,  held  at  the  Temple  Building, 
Toronto,  on  Tuesday  afternoon. 

''To  Christianize  the  whole  world,  civi- 
lized and  savage,  and  that  in  twenty-five 
years  time,  is  a  large  order,  and  yet  that  is 
what  the  meeting  discussed,  and  with  confi- 
dence. 

' '  The  Conference  and  the  banquet  follow- 
ing were  marked  with  great  enthusiasm, 
and  after  all  was  over  many  of  the  leaders 
present  said  that  a  great  step  had  been 
gained  in  Canada. 


124  Conflict  and  Victory. 

''The  object  is  to  get  all  Protestant 
denominations  to  co-operate  in  one  Chris- 
tian movement.  Business  men  will  finance 
it,  and  if  the  enthusiasm  spreads,  as  it  is 
expected  to  all  over  America,  the  work  can 
begin  at  once.  Already  there  are  thirty- 
three  laymen  from  the  United  States  look- 
ing over  the  mission  field,  and  others  will 
follow.  Considering  that  the  movement  be- 
gan only  last  November,  this  is  great 
progress. 

' '  The  laymen  desire  to  assist  the  present 
Church  missions,  rather  than  organize  new 
missionary  societies  to  take  up  work  inde- 
pendently." 

A  day  or  two  later  the  same  paper  con- 
tained this  information: 

''Under  the  auspices  of  the  National 
Civic  Federation  more  than  three  hundred 
men,  representing  all  grades  of  employers, 
employees,  capitalists,  professional  men, 
and  theorists,  assembled  at  the  home  of 
Andrew  Carnegie  recently,  for  what  Mr. 


Co-operation.  125 

Carnegie    termed    an    'industrial    peace 
evening. ' 

''During  the  evening  Nicholas  Murray 
Butler,  president  of  Columbia  University, 
caused  something  of  a  stir  by  declaring 
that  the  National  Civic  Federation  should 
call  a  world's  peace  conference  in  this 
country  in  the  near  future  to  hasten  a 
better  understanding  throughout  the  civi- 
lized world  between  employers  and  em- 
ployees. 

' '  His  suggestion  was  enthusiastically  re- 
ceived, and  many  persons  expressed  the 
opinion  that  under  Mr.  Carnegie 's  roof  had 
been  made  the  beginning  of  one  of  the 
greatest  movements  for  the  betterment  of 
industrial  conditions  in  the  history  of  civil- 
ization." 

Eight  thinking  men  everywhere  are  in 
sjanpathy  with  all  true  social  reform.  They 
favor  the  broadest  charity,  and  the  largest 
liberty  consistent  with  the  rights  of  others 
and   the   powers    of   human   government. 


126  Confiict  a/nd  Victory. 

They  would  have  all  needed  reformation 
come,  not  by  the  club,  but  by  the  ballot; 
not  by  clamor  and  riot,  but  by  a  peaceful 
political  evolution. 

"Blessing  the  cotter  and  the  crown. 

Sweetening  worn  labor's  bitter  cup ; 
And  plucking  not  the  highest  down, 
Lifting  the  lowliest  up." 

We  are  certainly  living  in  an  age  of  great 
movements.  The  Salvation  Army,  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement,  the  Lay- 
men's Evangelical  Association,  and  the 
National  Civic  Federation  Movement  show 
us  how  surely  the  leaven  of  righteousness 
has  taken  hold  upon  humanity.  The  spirit 
in  which  these  great  enterprises  are  con- 
ducted is  that  of  Christian  toleration  with 
a  warm  hand  extended  for  co-operation. 
We  have  reason  to  expect  much  from  them. 
They  are  not  here  to  monopolize,  but  to 
assist  in  the  world's  transformation.  It 
is  gratifying  to  see  the  place  they  assign 


Co-operation.  127 

to  the  principle  of  co-operation.  If  they 
succeed  in  carrying  out  their  program  as 
outlined,  this  century  may  see  accom- 
plished what  Tennyson  saw  in  vision — 

"When  the  war  drum  throbs  no  longer, 

And  the  battle  flags  are  furled, 
In  the  parliament  of  man 
The  federation  of  the  world." 


CHAPTER  VI. 
CHRISTIAN  CONDUCT. 


"Abhor  that  which  is  evil;  cleave  to  that  which 
is  good.  Be  kindly  affectioned  one  to  another  with 
brotherly  love;  in  honor  preferring  one  another;  not 
slothful  in  business;  fervent  in  spirit;  serving  the 
Lord ;  rejoicing  in  hope  ;  patient  in  tribulation ;  con- 
tinuing instant  in  prayer;  distributing  to  the  neces- 
sity of  saints;  given  to  hospitality.  Bless  them  which 
persecute  you:  bless,  and  curse  not.  Rejoice  with 
them  that  do  rejoice,  and  weep  with  them  that  weep. 
Be  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another.  Mind  not 
high  things;  but  condescend  to  men  of  low  estate. 
Be  not  wise  in  your  own  conceits.  Recompense  to 
no  man  evil  for  evil.  Provide  things  honest  in  the 
sight  of  all  men.  If  it  be  possible,  as  much  as  lieth 
in  you,  live  peaceably  with  all  men.  Dearly  beloved, 
avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather  give  place  unto 
wrath:  for  it  is  written.  Vengeance  is  mine;  I  will 
repay,  saith  the  Lord.  Therefore,  if  thine  enemy 
hunger,  feed  him;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink:  for 
in  so  doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  on  his  head." 


CHRISTIAN  CONDUCT. 

Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  overcome  evil  vrith 
good.— Rom.  xii,  21. 

The  remainder  of  this  twelfth  chapter  of 
Romans,  from  the  ninth  verse,  constitutes 
a  treatise  on  Christian  conduct  than  which 
I  know  of  nothing  finer  in  literature.  Paul 
reaches  his  accustomed  climax  in  the  last 
verse  of  the  chapter,  when  he  virtually  says 
to  us,  *'Be  not  overcome  of  evil,"  but  by 
the  power  of  consecration,  the  efficiency 
of  culture,  the  momentum  of  co-operation, 
and  the  influence  of  Christian  conduct, 
^'overcome  evil  with  good." 

Christian  conduct  as  a  factor  in  the 
transformation  of  the  world  sends  us  at 
once  to  the  statements  of  our  Lord:  ''Ye 
are  the  salt  of  the  earth,"— ''The  light  of 
the  world." 

131 


132  Conflict  cmd  Victory. 

It  is  largely  through  our  spirit  as  mani- 
fested in  our  conduct,  as  an  agency  for 
Him,  that  our  Lord  proposes  to  enlighten 
and  purify  the  world  until  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  established  amongst  men  with  sav- 
ing power.  This  places  a  high  value  upon 
the  individual  and  necessitates  or  implies 
two  things. 

In  the  first  place,  it  implies  the  reception 
of  Christ  into  the  heart  and  life  of  the  in- 
dividual ;  for  so  long  as  Christ  remains  out- 
side of  us,  though  we  may  respect  and  ad- 
mire Him,  still  we  can  neither  know,  nor 
love,  nor  serve  Him  as  we  ought.  '*I  will 
come  in  and  sup  with  you. "  ' '  Without  Me 
ye  can  do  nothing." 

The  motive  power  of  the  Christian  life 
is  ''Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory." 
When  this  incarnation  takes  place  the  be- 
liever can  say  with  Paul,  "I  can  do  all 
things  through  Christ  which  strengthenetli 
me. ' ' 

To  make  us  susceptible  of  the  best  in- 


Christian  Conduct,  133 

fluences  and  responsive  to  the  call  of  duty, 
the  heart  must  be  changed  by  the  convert- 
ing grace  of  God,  for  only  then  can  the 
soul  see  things  in  their  true  light.  ''Since 
I  have  known  God  in  a  saving  manner," 
said  Henry  Martyn,  ''painting,  poetry,  and 
music  have  had  charms  unknown  to  me  be- 
fore. I  have  received  what  I  suppose  is  a 
taste  for  them;  for  religion  has  refined  my 
mind  and  made  it  susceptible  of  impres- 
sions from  the  sublime  and  beautiful." 

Thus  do  we  see  that,  in  a  subjective 
sense,  Christ  in  us  lays  a  basis  for  all  future 
good.  It  is  what  Chalmers  calls  "The  im- 
pulsive power  of  a  new  affection."  But 
there  is  also  implied  the  manifestation  of 
Christ.  The  power  of  the  new  life  which 
Christ  brings  into  our  hearts  is  not  to  re- 
main dormant.  It  is  to  be  active  in  our 
life  and  conduct.  Hence  the  command, 
' '  Work  out  your  salvation. ' '  When  Christ 
comes  into  our  lives  with  saving  power, 
then  the  love  of  Christ  will  constrain  us 


134  Conflict  and  Victory. 

to  work  out  our  salvation  in  all  the  beauti- 
ful consistencies  of  Christian  life  and  con- 
duct. 

This  we  are  expected  to  do  as  Christians 
in  order  that  the  world  may  see,  and  feel, 
and  know  the  power  of  His  transforming 
grace;  for  until  Christian  ideas  clothe 
themselves  in  a  body  of  conduct  they  are 
ghostly,  unsubstantial,  and  comparatively 
uninfluential  things.  "Let  this  mind  be  in 
you,  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus." 
'  *  Ambassadors  are  useful, ' '  says  Bismarck, 
"only  when  filled  with  the  spirit  of  those 
who  send  them,  and  as  crystal  reveals  the 
color  of  the  liquid  that  is  in  it,  so  they 
should  represent  clearly  the  mind  of  their 
sovereign  masters.*' 

As  Christians  we  are  the  sent  ambas- 
sadors of  Christ,  and  the  only  evidence  we 
can  give  to  the  world  that  we  have  a  living 
faith  and  the  mind  of  Christ  in  us  is  the 
manifestation  of  a  true,  pure,  loving  life. 
The  spirit  of  the  world  and  the  spirit  of 


Christian  Conduct.  135 

Christ  are  antagonistic.  The  one  is  selfish, 
the  other  beneficent;  the  one  says  get, 
the  other  give.  The  man  wlio  has  the 
spirit  or  mind  of  the  world  in  him  says, 
"This  is  mine  to  spend  upon  myself." 
The  man  who  has  the  mind  of  Christ  in 
him  says,  ''This  I  hold  in  trust  for  God  to 
use  for  the  good  of  others."  The  mind  of 
the  world  contends  for  absolute  non-ac- 
countable ownership;  the  mind  of  Christ 
allows  only  stewardship.  The  one  is  ego- 
istic, the  other  altruistic. 

Now  it  is  easy  to  see  that  civilization 
under  the  molding  power  and  guiding  hand 
of  Christian  love,  as  manifested  in  the  con- 
duct of  Christian  jjeople,  would  renovate 
the  bases  of  society  and  rear  a  structure 
in  the  image  of  the  heavenly.  If  Christian 
sentiment  would  only  put  on  the  conduct 
that  logically  follows  from  its  profession, 
the  vices  that  now  weaken  and  degrade  our 
civilization  would  rapidly  disappear.  In 
speaking  of  our  country's  prospects.  Dr. 


136  Conflict  and  Victory. 

Storrs  said,  "Our  future  history  is  as  se- 
cure as  that  of  the  past  if  only  that  moral 
life  remains  which  was  in  the  founders  of 
these  commonwealths,  when  peril  did  not 
frighten  or  hardship  discourage  them,  and 
when  their  daily  rude  experience  took  from 
the  Bible  a  consecration  and  a  gleam." 

The  best  service  the  friends  of  Chris- 
tianity can  render  to  society  is  to  exemplify 
its  spirit  and  practice  its  principles;  for 
men  will  admire  it  and  be  made  better  by 
it  if  they  can  only  see  the  genuine  article. 
I  think  this  was  what  Christ  meant  when 
he  said,  "Let  your  light  so  shine  before 
men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works 
and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven." 

Christians  are  the  world's  Bible,  "Liv- 
ing epistles"  are  they,  "known  and  read 
of  all  men."  While  it  is  true  that  the 
Christian  is  commanded  to  come  out  and 
be  separate  from  the  world,  so  far  as  par- 
ticipating with  those  of  the  world  in  their 


Christian  Conduct.  137 

sinful  practices  and  pleasures  is  concerned, 
still  he  is  not  to  regard  himself  as  being 
wholly  separated  from  them ;  for  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  we  owe  them  certain  duties 
and  in  which  we  actually  exist  for  their 
benefit.  For  instance,  we  are  exhorted  in 
one  place  to  be  diligent  in  business  that 
we  may  ''walk  honestly  toward  them  that 
are  without."  We  have  no  right  to  treat 
them  that  are  without  as  though  they  were 
outlaws. 

Worldly  men  know  little,  and  care  less, 
about  our  ecclesiastical  polity,  or  behavior 
in  church,  but  they  are  alive  to  the  faith- 
fulness or  unfaithfulness  with  which  we 
discharge  our  relative  duties  as  Christians. 
Though  they  may  not  be  able  to  sympathize 
with  us  in  our  struggles  after  a  pure  life, 
nevertheless,  they  know  well  how  to  esti- 
mate the  value  of  an  honest  day's  work, 
and  they  can  and  do  appreciate  the  merit 
of  a  prompt  payment.  For  this  reason  a 
dishonest   professor   of   religion   gives    a 


138  Conflict  and  Victory. 

shock  to  Christian  evidences  and  does  more 
to  hinder  the  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom 
than  years  of  professing  can  do  to  advance 
it.  AVhile  on  the  other  hand,  the  strongest 
and  most  incontrovertible  evidence  that 
Christianity  can  produce  is  to  be  found  in 
the  lives  of  those  who  quietly,  unostenta- 
tiously, and  faithfully  discharge  life's 
duties ;  for  it  is  by  such  that  Christ  is  pre- 
sented in  a  worthy,  attractive  manner 
toward  them  that  are  without.  ' '  They  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth,  the  light  of  the 
world. ' ' 

That  there  are  prejudices  in  the  minds 
of  men  against  Christianity  is  plain.  One 
of  the  grave  charges  which  the  world  pre- 
fers against  her  to-day  is  that  she  is  want- 
ing in  the  matter  of  conformity  to  her 
creed.  Few,  if  any,  of  her  enemies  have 
had  the  temerity  to  attack  her  on  her  ideal 
side.  But  they  do  find  fault  with  us  in 
the  manner  in  which  we  work  out  our 
Christianity.     That  they  have  cause  for 


Christian  Conduct.  139 

complaint  will  hardly  be  doubted,  inasmuch 
as  many  professing  Christians  are  not  as 
careful  of  their  influence  as  they  ought 
to  be. 

Max  Muller  once  said,  when  lecturing  in 
Glasgow,  that  ''When  he  saw  all  Europe 
turned  into  a  military  camp  and  the  best 
genius  of  the  nations  devoted  to  training 
and  inventing  new  machines  for  killing 
men,  he  thought  a  renewed  religion  was 
needed."  "We  do  not  need  a  new  religion. 
What  we  want  is,  rather,  the  proof  in  the 
Christian  life  that  the  old-time  religion  is 
still  the  power  of  God.  When  this  is  mani- 
fested, there  will  be  found  few  advocates 
of  the  questionable  things  regarded  by 
many  as  evidencing  a  laxity  of  Christian 
conduct.  But  rather  Christ's  injunction, 
' '  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness"  will  be  exemplified  in  in- 
creased attention  to  the  worship  of  God's 
house  and  all  official  obligations ;  which  will 
do  more  to  demonstrate  the  spirit  of  this 


140  Conflict  and  Victory. 

twelfth  chapter  of  Eomans  and  harmonize 
conduct  with  Christ  than  any  statement  of 
creed  or  interpretation  of  discipline. 

The  test  of  concrete  Christianity  is  two- 
fold. First,  its  effect  npon  the  individual, 
and  second,  its  effect  upon  society.  The 
latter  is  what  determines  the  genuineness 
of  the  former.  Good  men  and  women  live 
forever.  They  project  themselves  down 
the  centuries  and  thus  inspire  after  genera- 
tions with  something  of  their  faith  and 
fortitude.  Elizabeth  Fry  and  John  How- 
ard live  to-day  in  the  lives  of  all  prison 
reformers;  Bunyan  leads  our  boys  and 
girls  through  Beulah  land,  and  Dr.  Duncan 
still  guards  the  earnings  of  the  poor  in  our 
savings  banks.  Such  men  as  Moses  and 
Elijah,  James  and  Paul,  Huss  and  Luther, 
Newell  and  Judson  are  still  with  us  in  ever- 
increasing  power. 

That  Christian  conduct  is  a  powerful 
factor  in  civilization  is  plain  from  the  fact 
that  it  gives  momentum  and  right  direction 


Christian  Conduct.  141 

to  those  two  great  moral  forces,  influence 
and  example.  Greatness  of  character  is  a 
communicable  attribute.  The  subtle  power 
of  example  is  contagious.  Rome  felt  it  as 
thousands  of  martyrs  gave  up  their  lives 
for  the  Lord  Jesus.  Mediaeval  ages  felt  it 
as  Christian  missionaries  carried  to  our  an- 
cestors, then  savage  tribes,  the  Gospel  that 
became  the  seed  of  commonwealths.  Ger- 
many and  England  felt  its  power  in  the 
Reformations  of  Luther  and  Wesley.  This 
continent  felt  it  as  the  early  Methodist 
itinerants  of  hero  hearts  and  martyr  faith 
went  forth  on  their  long  journeys  and 
shook  the  depths  of  forest  gloom  with  their 
hymns  of  lofty  cheer.  The  influence  of 
their  lives  reaches  even  unto  us  and  teaches 
us  that  the  Christian  religion  is  not  a  mere 
code  of  laws,  or  an  abstract  system,  but 
a  living  embodiment  of  goodness  which 
comes  to  us  in  human  form  and  offers  itself 
to  our  eyes  as  well  as  our  ears. 

In  an  editorial  eniitlcd,  ''Follow  me," 


142  Conflict  a/nd  Victory. 

the  editor  of  Zion's  Herald  made  the  fol- 
lowing sensible  remarks;  "Saintly  lives 
have  always  won  more  followers  for  Christ 
than  the  keenest  logic,  or  the  most  tender 
words  of  persuasion.  The  Christian  in  his 
humility  may  hesitate  to  say,  'Follow  me,' 
but  after  all  is  it  not  his  example,  his  in- 
fluence, his  character,  his  fidelity  which  tell 
upon  the  seeker  after  truth?  Men  do  not 
readily  yield  themselves  to  argument,  to 
advice,  to  solicitation ;  but  when  they  see  a 
beautiful,  harmonious,  Christlike  life,  they 
are  drawn  to  it  by  a  sort  of  spiritual 
affinity.  Such  a  life  is  a  center  of  attrac- 
tion to  all  restless,  wandering  souls  which 
long  for  the  peace  and  rest  of  fixed  faith 
and  purpose." 

These  examples  of  goodness  are  of  in- 
finite value  to  civilization,  inasmuch  as 
they  make  virtue  visible  and  desirable,  and 
not  only  rebuke  our  imperfections,  but  urge 
us  to  the  imitation  of  goodness.  The  moral 
law  and  all  the  abstract  principles  of  right 


Christian  Conduct.  143 

are  interpreted,  fortified,  and  recom- 
mended by  the  conduct  of  those  who  are 
honest,  disinterested,  and  genuinely  Chris- 
tian. Our  reverence  for  virtue  is  deepened 
and  strengthened  by  all  that  we  witness 
and  hear  of  the  beneficence,  self-sacrifice, 
purity,  and  devotion  of  the  true  Christian 
men  and  women  of  society.  Men  respect 
realities  and  will  not  quarrel  with  them. 
Men  can  not  look  upon  good  characters  and 
bad  characters,  they  can  not  observe  the 
beauty  of  virtue  and  the  nobility  of  in- 
tegrity, and  contrast  them  with  the  repul- 
siveness  of  vice  and  the  downward  ten- 
dency of  unrestrained  pleasure  without 
feeling  the  difference  of  the  principles 
which  they  reveal.  Thus,  as  one  puts  it, 
"Every  good  act  preaches;  every  true, 
pure  life  is  a  rampart  against  evil,  and 
all  virtue  which  is  visible  in  human  con- 
duet  is  an  indirect  but  powerful  emphasis 
to  all  the  arguments  that  would  win  men 
to  goodness  and  warn  them  from  sin." 


144  Conflict  and  Victory. 

"When  one  who  holds  communion  with  the  skies 
Has  filled  his  urn  where  those  pure  waters  rise, 
And  once  more  mingles  with  us  meaner  things, 
'T  is  e'en  as  if  an  angel  shook  his  wings; 
Immortal  fragrance  fills  the  circuit  wide 
That  tells  us  whence  his  treasures  are  supplied." 

Canon  Farrar  said:  "I  would  rather 
that  any  man  should  be  a  Romanist  or  a 
Dissenter  or  a  Buddhist  or  a  Mohammedan, 
so  that  he  were  a  holy  and  godly  man,  than 
ten  times  over  a  member  of  the  most  cath- 
olic Church  that  ever  existed  and  be  a  sly 
intriguer,  or  a  rancorous  slanderer,  or  an 
unclean  liver,  or  a  professed  liar  or  in  any 
one  form  of  conscious  wickedness  a  hypo- 
crite or  a  bad  man.  Just  as  a  living  dog 
is  better  than  a  dead  lion,  so  a  good  heretic 
or  righteous  schismatic  maj^  be  immeasur- 
ably dearer  to  God  and  nearer  to  heaven 
than  a  bad  Christian  whose  conduct  gives 
the  lie  to  his  creed." 

"What  the  world  needs  to-day  is  not  so 
much  consecrated  capital  as  life  preachers 


Christian  Conduct.  145 

and  preaching.  It  is  the  most  intelligible ; 
for  even  children  can  understand  it.  It  is 
the  most  incontrovertible;  for  while  men 
can  and  do  battle  with  propositions,  they 
can  not  argue  against  a  true,  pure,  good 
life.  It  is  the  most  constant;  for  while 
oral  preaching  is  at  best  but  occasional, 
life-preaching  is  perennial.  The  temple  of 
Zion  was  magnificently  grand,  but  not  of 
such  enduring  value  to  the  race  as  one  such 
life  as  Ezra,  Isaiah,  or  Paul.  In  like 
manner,  the  glory  of  the  Christian  religion 
is  not  in  the  magnificence  of  her  temples  or 
the  excellency  of  her  ritual,  but  in  her 
deeds  of  usefulness,  in  her  sacrifices  for 
humanity,  in  the  beauty  of  life  and  char- 
acter displayed  in  her  followers.  In  these 
things  she  is  most  influential,  for  no  one 
can  wholly  withstand  the  moral  power  of 
a  truly  good  life,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
it  is  God-inspired.  The  man  who  is  identi- 
fied with  the  cross  of  Christ  is  identified 
with  moral  omnipotence,  or  in  other  words 
10 


146  Conflict  (Mid  Victory. 

with  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 
Hence  wherever  you  see  a  man  resenting 
a  bribe  as  an  insult  to  his  manhood ;  wher- 
ever you  see  a  merchant  refusing  to  con- 
form to  i)opular  deceptions  for  gain ;  wher- 
ever you  see  a  merchant  refusing  to  con- 
the  wicked  for  reward,  or  a  follower  of 
Jesus  glorying  in  the  cross  of  Christ  in 
spite  of  taunt  or  ridicule  or  persecution, 
there  you  behold  the  manifestation  of  a 
higher  power  than  that  which  moves  the 
world — the  power  to  do  right  and  fear  God. 
This  world  has  been  lifted  into  a  higher 
plane  of  thought  and  life  by  Christian  men 
who  worked  when  they  were  weary,  who 
laid  aside,  for  the  time  being,  their  own 
plans  and  purposes  that  the  cause  of  God 
might  be  given  right  of  way ;  men  who  re- 
garded not  their  lives  dear  unto  them  when 
duty  called  for  service  or  for  sacrifice ;  men 
who  felt  that  the  world  was  in  moral  dark- 
ness and  that  its  misery  and  sin  cried  aloud 
for  the  Christian  mission  of  consolation 


Christian  Conduct.  147 

and  redemption  which  they  were  able  to 
give.  Such  men  have  taught  the  world  that 
"Simple  duty  has  no  place  for  fear,"  and 
by  the  very  force  of  their  example  have 
'Mured"  us  "to  brighter  worlds  and  led 
the  way." 

"May  every  soul  that  touches  ours. 

Be  it  the  slightest  contact,  get  therefrom  some  good, 

Some  little  grace;   one  kindly  thought; 

One  aspiration  yet  unfelt;  one  bit  of  courage 

For  the  darkening  sky;  one  gleam  of  faith 

To  brave  the  thickening  ills  of  life; 

One  glimpse  of  brighter  skies  beyond  the  gathering 

mists ; 
To  make  this  life  worth  while,  and  heaven  a  surer 

heritage." 


PART  II. 
SERMONS, 


CHAPTEU  VII. 

THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD  AND 
THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  MAN. 


"Have  we  not  all  one  Father?  Hath  not  one  God 
created  us?" 

"For  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ;  and  all  ye 
are  brethren." 

"I  ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father:  and 
to  my  God,  and  your  God." 

"One  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all.  and 
through  all,  and  in  you  all." 

"Be  in  subjection  unto  the  Father  of  spirits  and 
live." 


THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD  AND 
THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  MAN. 

He  giveth  to  all  life  and  breath  and  all  things; 
and  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men.  Acta 
xvii,  25,  26. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  brightest  gem  that 
ever  adorned  the  finger  of  beauty  or  the 
brow  of  royalty  may  be  improved  by  the 
setting,  then,  surely,  this  expression  of  the 
great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  is  greatly  en- 
hanced by  the  historic  setting  in  which  we 
find  it.  You  will  remember  that  just  before 
uttering  these  sublime  truths,  Paul  had 
been  making  a  survey  of  Athens.  He  had 
come  from  treading  the  courts  of  the 
Academy  where  Plato  and  Aristotle  taught, 
where  Socrates  had  lived  and  died,  and 
where  the  followers  of  Zeno  and  Epicurus 

153 


154  Conflict  and  Victory. 

were  still  inculcating  the  peculiar  tenets 
of  their  respective  schools,  when  he  was 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly  called  upon  to 
expound  his  own  religious  views.  When  he 
gave  utterance  to  the  words  of  my  text,  he 
stood  upon  the  historic  Mars'  Hill  in 
Athens,  the  eye  of  cultured  Greece,  sur- 
rounded by  the  masterpieces  of  Grecian  art 
and  the  memorials  of  Grecian  wisdom. 
Around  him  were  the  manifestations  of 
wonderful  genius;  the  proofs  of  what 
man's  intellect  could  achieve.  It  was  a 
trying  hour,  but  his  conduct  upon  that  oc- 
casion was  characteristic  of  the  man,  for 
he  was  modest,  wise,  and  dauntless.  As  he 
looked  around  upon  the  altars  of  the  gods, 
his  quick  qjq  saw  in  them  the  evidence  of 
a  worshipful  spirit  in  the  Athenian  in  re- 
gard to  the  unseen,  and  gathering  from 
their  own  literature  Man's  true  relation  to 
God,  he  proceeded  with  wonderful  tact,  sim- 
plicity, and  force  to  enunciate  to  them  those 
truths   of  natural  religion  which   reason 


The  Fatherhood  of  God.  155 

could  receive  and  adopt.  And  then  rising 
to  the  higher  truths  of  revelation,  he 
preached  unto  them  Jesus  and  the  resurrec- 
tion. My  text,  which  is  an  excerpt  from  his 
wonderful  address,  contains  two  precious 
doctrines  which  we  will  now  consider. 

In  the  first  place  you  will  notice  that  we 
have  very  clearly  presented  to  us  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  in  the  words,  "He 
giveth  to  all  life  and  breath  and  all  things. ' ' 
It  is  well  for  us  to  remember,  at  the  outset, 
that  God  is  not  our  Father  simply  because 
He  created  us ;  for  my  text  assures  us  that 
He  created  the  flower  and  the  insect,  the 
beast  and  the  bird  as  well,  but  we  never 
think  of  Him  as  their  Father  in  the  sense 
in  which  He  is  ours.  These  are  the  works 
of  His  hands;  we  are  His  children.  It  is 
in  a  spiritual  sense  that  God  is  our  Father. 
The  very  term  implies  this;  for  to  be  a 
father  is  to  communicate  one's  own  nature 
and  give  life  to  kindred  beings.  The  Scrip- 
tures teach  us  that  God  is  a  spirit  and  that 


156  Conflict  and  Victory. 

man  was  begotten  in  His  image,  which  must 
have  been  spiritual.  The  idea  of  Father- 
hood gives  to  Him  a  paternal  relation  to 
man  and  brings  in  the  elements  of  feeling 
and  personal  interest,  for  love  is  the  su- 
preme glory  of  fatherhood.  Indeed,  it  is 
the  verdict  of  history  that  in  every  age  and 
nation  of  which  we  have  any  record  the 
dearest  thoughts,  the  tenderest  associa- 
tions, and  the  most  reverent  feelings  have 
ever  clustered  around  the  word  father. 
Hence  it  is  as  our  Father  that  God  comes 
nearest  to  men.  The  Savior  recognized 
this  fact;  for  in  one  of  His  parables  He 
shows  us  a  weeping  prodigal  pressing  his 
face  into  his  father's  bosom,  heart  beating 
to  heart,  the  one  in  all  the  agony  of  peni- 
tence, the  other  in  all  the  anguish  of  pitying 
love.  And  who  shall  say  that  all  law  was 
not  vindicated  when  that  father  kissed 
away  his  son's  tears  and  called  for  music, 
the  best  robe,  and  the  fatted  calf? 

How  it  dignifies  our  conception  of  human 


The  Fatherhood  of  God.  157 

nature  to  think  that  the  God  of  boundless 
worlds  and  infinite  systems  is  our  Father ! 
Indeed,  our  human  fatherhood  is  but  a  dim 
reflection  of  the  Divine ;  for  our  best,  ten- 
derest,  and  holiest  affections  are  but  shad- 
ows of  corresponding  feelings  in  the  heart 
of  our  Heavenly  Father,  who  thinks  about 
us,  provides  for  us,  and  loves  us.  Hence  we 
are  not  surprised  to  learn  that  He  has  pity 
for  the  erring,  pardon  for  the  guilty,  and 
an  immortal  life  for  all  who  trust  and  obey 
him.  Inasmuch  as  He  has  expended 
thought,  affection,  and  training  upon  us, 
He  has,  therefore,  a  right  to  expect  from  us 
filial  obedience  to  His  will,  and  when  we  fail 
to  render  it  to  Him  His  heart  is  grieved; 
for  having  created  us  He  is  interested  in 
us.  Every  human  soul  that  fails  to  reach 
heaven  is  the  loss  of  a  dear  child  to  God. 
Knowing,  as  He  does,  the  value  of  a  human 
soul,  it  is  not  belittling  to  the  Almighty 
to  say  that  He  grieves  over  such  losses.  To 
have  any  conception  of  what  God's  grief 


158  Conflict  and  Victory. 

over  those  who  rebel  against  Him  is,  it 
would  be  necessary  for  us  to  purify,  mag- 
nify, and  multiply  to  an  indefinite  extent  the 
grief  which  we  feel  when  our  children  go 
astray,  for  God  is  Father  to  the  sinner  as 
well  as  to  the  saint.  I  am  aware  that  there 
are  those  who  claim  that  we  are  not  God's 
children  mitil  we  are  adopted  into  His 
family,  and  that  none,  therefore,  but  the 
converted  can  call  Him  Father.  But  I  main- 
tain that  every  man  is  born  into  God's 
family  and  remains  in  his  Father's  house 
until,  like  the  prodigal,  he  wills  to  leave  it ; 
for  surely  from  birth  to  decision  gvqyj  man 
is  safe.  Of  course,  it  is  well  for  us  to  re- 
member, in  this  connection,  that  the  mere 
abstract  relationship,  apart  from  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  duties  involved  in  it,  is  of 
very  little  value  to  us.  For  instance,  it  is 
a  very  little  thing  for  a  man  to  stand  in 
the  abstract  relation  of  a  citizen  in  this 
nation;  but  it  is  a  very  great  thing  for  a 


The  Fatherhood  of  God.  159 

man  to  fulfill  worthily  all  the  duties  of  citi- 
zenship in  a  country  governed  as  we  are. 
It  is  a  very  little  thing  for  a  man  to  stand 
in  the  mere  abstract  relation  of  a  husband 
or  a  father ;  but  it  is  certainly  a  very  great 
thing  for  a  man  to  nobly  meet  the  responsi- 
bilities that  pertain  to  such  relationships. 
In  like  manner,  the  fact  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  your  spirit  will  neither  save  nor 
bless  you  until  that  relationship  is  mani- 
fested and  proved  by  a  devoted,  faithful, 
obedient  life;  for  it  is  only  to  such  that 
God  extends  an  assuring,  comforting, 
gracious  sense  of  his  Divine  Fatherhood. 
It  is  only  such  who  can  with  grateful,  trust- 
ful hearts  look  up  and  exclaim : 

"Father,  I  know   that  all   my   life  is   portioned   out 

to  me, 
And  the  changes  that  will  surely  come  I  do  not  fear 

to  see; 
But  I  ask  Thee  for  a  present  mind,  intent  on  pleasing 

Thee." 


160  ConjUct  cmd  Victory. 

If  God  is  the  Father  of  all  human  spirits, 
then  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  human 
brotherhood.  Once  establish  the  doctrine 
of  God's  Fatherhood,  and  the  foundation  is 
laid  for  the  further  doctrine  of  man's 
brotherhood.  This  was  the  method  Paul 
adopted  in  his  address  to  the  Athenians 
upon  the  Hill  of  Mars.  The  Greeks  to 
whom  he  spoke  believed  that  the  gods  were 
their  ultimate  ancestors,  and  hence  they 
divided  the  human  family  into  two  classes 
— Greeks  and  Barbarians.  This  view  Paul 
sought  to  correct  by  teaching  them  that 
God  is  our  common  Father,  and  that  there- 
fore we  are  all  brothers,  children  of  one 
common  parent.  His  claim  was  that  God 
''hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men 
to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth. ' '  He 
further  endeavored  to  show  them  that  God 
was  interested  in  all  men,  and  that  for  that 
reason  he  commended  to  each  an  interest 
in  all.  The  great  aim  of  the  Gospel  is  to 
hasten  the  time 


The  Fatherhood  of  God.  161 

"  When  all  men's  good  shall  be  each  man's  rule 
And  universal  peace. 

Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land, 
And  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea. 
Through  all  the  cycle  of  the  golden  year." 

''He  only  is  a  true  Christian  who  has  a 
profound  and  practical  consciousness  of 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  whose  faith  in 
Christ  is  so  strong  that  he  can  see  in  every 
drunken  outcast  a  possible  saint,  in  every 
gambling  den  a  place  of  prayer,  and  in 
every  abandoned  prostitute  a  Mary  Mag- 
dalene. The  spirit  of  Christianity  is  sym- 
pathetic and  helpful.  It  aims  to  destroy 
that  spirit  of  selfishness  which  would  say, 
What  to  me  is  a  Turk,  a  Chinaman,  or  a 
Patagonianl"  Christianity  would  have 
every  one  say  with  Lowell : 

"Where'er  a  single  slave  doth  pine. 
Where'er  one  man  may  help  another; 
Thank   God   for   such   a   birthright,   brother. 
That  spot  of  land  is  thine  and  mine; 
There  is  the  true  man's  birthplace  grand, 
For  his  is  a  world-wide  fatherland," 
11 


162  Conjlict  and  Victory. 

With  Dr.  Wm.  E.  Channing  I  believe  that 
''war  will  never  yield  but  to  the  principles 
of  universal  justice  and  love,  and  these 
have  no  sure  root  but  in  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ."  It  was  Jesus  and  His 
fishermen  apostles  who  first  conceived  the 
thought  and  burned  with  the  enterprise  of 
a  world-wide  philanthropy.  The  spirit  of 
universal  benevolence  and  brotherhood 
which  He  introduced  is  fittingly  illustrated 
in  the  following  event:  A  Hindoo  and  a 
New  Zealander  once  met  upon  the  deck  of 
a  mission  ship.  They  both  had  been  con- 
verted from  heathenism,  and  were  there- 
fore brothers  in  Christ.  But  they  could  not 
speak  understanding! y  to  one  another. 
They  pointed  to  their  Bibles,  shook  hands, 
and  smiled  upon  each  other,  and  that  was 
all  that  it  seemed,  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  that  they  could  do.  At  last  a  happy 
thought  occurred  to  the  acute  mind  of  the 
Hindoo,  for  all  at  once  with  sudden  joy  he 
exclaimed,  ''Hallelujah!"     Promptly  the 


The  Fatherhood  of  God.  163 

New  Zealander  cried  out,  ' '  Amen ! ' '  Thus 
do  we  see  that  these  two  words,  not  found 
in  their  own  heathen  tongues,  were  to  them 
the  beginning  of  one  language  and  one 
speech.  Indeed,  the  sympathy  of  man  with 
man— to  weep  with  them  that  weep,  to  bind 
up  the  broken  hearted,  to  comfort  them 
that  mourn,  to  act  ''the  good  Samaritan," 
pouring  oil  and  wine  into  the  stranger's 
wounds  as  though  he  were  a  bosom  friend, 
is  a  philanthropy  based  upon  the  great  doc- 
trine of  human  brotherhood  which  human 
minds  had  never  thought  of  until  it  was 
revealed  from  heaven  by  the  Son  of  man 
who  came  down  from  heaven.  Verily, 
Christendom  is  the  best  defense  of  Chris- 
tianity; for  nothing  else  in  equal  measure 
has  ever  taught  us  how  to  live 

"For  the  cause  that  lacks  assistance, 
For  the  wrongs  that  need  resistance, 
For  the  future  in  the  distance 
And  the  good  that  we  may  do." 


164  Confjict  cmd  Victory . 

Take  the  Christian  conception  of  our 
neighbor  as  given  to  us  by  the  Lord  Him- 
self, and  we  shall  find  in  it  a  love  which 
oversteps  the  limit  of  race,  removes  the 
limit  of  space,  and  even  transcends  the 
limit  of  character.  ''It  teaches  us  that 
the  neighbor  whom  we  should  commiserate 
and  help  is  not  simply  the  poor  traveler 
who  has  fallen  among  thieves  and  been 
wounded  and  robbed,  but  the  erring  soul 
who  has  lost  the  true  way  and  become 
entangled  in  the  darkness  of  sin,  the  piti- 
able one  who  has  fallen  into  the  pit  of 
shame;  for  those  who  have  been  smitten 
by  that  worst  of  all  strokes  and  have  de- 
scended into  the  darkest  of  all  shadows 
are  as  much  our  neighbors  as  any  others." 
They  are  our  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
we  can  never  be  relieved  from  the  duty 
of  doing  them  good  when  it  is  in  our  power 
to  help  them.  Our  neighbor,  as  defined  by 
the  Savior,  is  not  simply  the  man  who  is 
up  and  doing  and  who  can  assist  us  on  our 


The  Fatherhood  of  God.  165 

way,  but  the  man  that  is  down  and  whom 
we  can  assist  to  rise.  In  short,  our  neighbor, 
in  a  true  Christian  sense,  is  the  man  who  is 
in  the  most  need  of  our  sympathy  and  help, 
whether  his  house  or  farm  adjoins  ours, 
or  whether  he  lives  miles  and  miles  away. 
It  is  by  helping  him,  by  going  to  him  and 
making  ourselves  neighbors  to  him,  that 
we  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ,  keep  His  com- 
mandments, and  live  His  life.  Upon  this 
Biblical  and  Christian  basis  rest  all  the 
great  religious  enterprises  of  to-day,  all 
the  noble  reforms  of  Christendom,  all  the 
worthy  charities  of  Christian  lands  and 
everj^  benevolent  institution.  Indeed,  our 
Christian  civilization  is  undergirded  and 
strengthened  and  upheld  by  a  belief  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  He  has  but  very  imperfectly  studied 
human  nature  who  does  not  see  that  by 
such  helpful,  timely  ministrations  of  sym- 
pathy and  love  as  those  to  which  I  have 
referred. 


«l 


166  Conflict  and  Victory. 

"The  meanest  wretch  that  ever  trod,  the  deepest  sunk 
in  sin  and  sorrow, 

Might  stand  erect  in  self-respect  and  share  the  teem- 
ing world  to-morrow, 

Oppression's  heart  might  be  imbued  with  Icindling 
drops  of  loving  kindness; 

And  knowledge  pour  from  shore  to  shore  light  on  the 
eyes  of  mental  blindness. 

What  might  be  done,  this  might  be  done  and  more 
than  this,  my  suffering  brother. 

More  than  the  tongue  ere  said  or  sung,  if  men  were 
wise  and  loved  each  other." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
ENCOURAGEMENT. 


"To  him  that  soweth  righteousness  shall  be  a 
sure  reward." 

"Whosoever  shall  give  to  drink  unto  one  of  these 
little  ones  a  cup  of  cold  water  only  in  the  name  of  a 
disciple,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  he  shall  in  no  wise 
lose  his  reward." 

"Fear  not,  little  flock ;  for  it  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom." 

"Do  good  and  your  reward  shall  be  gi'eat." 


ENCOURAGEMENT. 

Let  us  not  weary  in  well  doing,  for  in  due  season 
we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not. — Gal.  vi,  9. 

In  this  laconic  chapter,  Paul  touches 
with  wonderful  clearness  and  force  upon 
some  of  the  great  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  In  a  very  felicitous  spirit  he 
exhorts  his  readers  to  cultivate  mutual  tol- 
erance and  helpfulness,  to  avoid  censori- 
ousness,  to  be  liberal  in  maintaining  their 
religious  teachers,  to  sow,  not  to  the  flesh, 
but  to  the  spirit,  and  to  persevere  in  Chris- 
tian beneficence. 

These  admonitions  are  always  timely  and 
helpful,  and  none  more  so  than  Christian 
beneficence.  Sin  in  one  form  or  another 
repeats  before  God,  age  after  age,  the 
words  of  the  world's  earliest  self-seeker, 

169 


170  Conjlict  and  Victory. 

"Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?"  By  unduly 
emphasizing  the  distinction  between  mine 
and  thine,  men  have  alienated  themselves 
from  each  other  and  introduced  all  forms 
of  class  distinction.  In  Paul's  day  this 
evil  was  seen  and  felt,  and  hence  he  had 
something  to  say  about  it,  for  he  believed 
that  the  Gospel  has  to  do  with  man's 
private,  social,  and  political  life. 

In  treating  this  question  of  Christian 
beneficence,  he  was  the  right  man  in  the 
right  place,  inasmuch  as  he  invariably 
practiced  what  he  preached.  The  lessons 
of  his  voice  and  pen  were  enforced  with 
tenfold  power  by  the  actions  of  his  daily 
life.  His  life  of  conscious  rectitude  en- 
abled him  to  say  to  those  to  whom  he 
wrote,  "Those  things  which  ye  have 
learned  and  read  and  heard  and  seen  in 
me  do,  and  the  very  God  of  peace  shall  be 
with  you."  As  a  religious  teacher  he  not 
only  gave  them  a  rule  of  thought,  but  he 
exhibited  in  his  own  life  a  rule  of  conduct 


Encouragement.  171 

worthy  of  their  imitation.  We  see  this  in 
his  devotion  to  others,  and  in  his  adapta- 
tion to  all  men  that  he  might  win  them  to 
Christ.  ''Like  a  good  man  out  of  the  good 
treasure  of  his  heart  Saint  Paul  brought 
forth  good  things  in  thought  and  life." 
Such  an  exhortation  comes  with  stronger 
force  from  him  than  from  any  other  New 
Testament  writer.  The  admonition  of  the 
text  is  for  Christian  believers.  The  apos- 
tle is  careful  to  count  himself  in.  ' '  Let  us 
not  be  weary  in  well-doing"  is  the  signifi- 
cant admonition.  The  dignity,  duty,  and 
destiny  of  believers  is  to  be  found  in  well- 
doing, for  as  he  elsewhere  expresses  it, 
''We  are  God's  workmanship,  created  in 
Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works." 

The  advice  given  was  not  intended  for  a 
reprimand,  for  the  writer  does  not  even 
hint  that  the  Galatian  Christians  are  not 
"abounding  unto  every  good  work."  He 
merely  suggests  by  way  of  exhortation  that 
they  become  not  weary  in  this  life  of  well 


172  Conflict  and  Victory. 

doing.  It  is  an  invitation  to  unite  forces 
and  follow  the  example  of  the  blessed 
Master  "who  went  about  doing  good." 
The  prosperity  of  the  Church,  the  salvation 
of  men,  and  the  glory  of  God  make  it  neces- 
sary for  us  to  embrace  every  opportunity 
afforded  us  to  do  good.  The  Christian 
religion  is  not  an  ism,  but  a  life;  not  a 
theology,  old  or  new,  but  a  living  force 
within.  It  is  an  internal  motive  power 
which  is  ever  productive  of  results.  It  does 
not  terminate  in  self.  Its  emblem  is  not 
the  sponge  which  absorbs,  but  the  summer 
cloud  which  gives  forth.  Christ  "gave 
Himself  for  us  that  He  might  redeem  us 
from  all  iniquity  and  purify  unto  Himself 
a  peculiar  people  zealous  of  good  works." 
The  admonition  of  the  text  is  a  needful 
one.  In  a  world  like  the  one  in  which  we 
live,  there  are  so  many  unsettling  influences 
around  us  that  we  are  apt  to  become  weary, 
even  in  a  life  of  uprightness.  The  causes 
of  weariness  in  well  doing  are  so  numerous 


Encouragement.  173 

and  complex  in  their  operation  that  we 
need  to  be  very  watchful  and  very  careful. 
"  To  do  good  and  communicate  forget  not, ' ' 
is  advice  that  is  always  timely  and  neces- 
sary. 

There  are  many  things  which  tend  to 
make  well  doing  wearisome  work.  There 
is  the  friction  of  life  in  a  world  of  ungodly 
tendencies.  A  life  of  well  doing  is  the 
furthest  removed  from  a  life  of  selfishness. 
To  persevere  in  it,  we  need  a  large  infusion 
of  the  spirit  in  which  Christ  regarded  man. 
The  Christian  who  would  lead  a  life  of  well 
doing  must  be  able  to  say  with  Terence, ' '  I 
am  a  man  and  I  have  an  interest  in  every- 
thing that  concerns  humanity."  He  must 
call  nothing  that  God  has  made  "common 
or  unclean."  He  must  be  able  to  see  be- 
neath the  vice  and  cruelty  and  moral  repul- 
siveness  of  human  society  bright  jewels 
which  may  be  won  for  Christ,  immortal 
souls  which  may  be  washed  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb. 


174  Conflict  cmd  Victory. 

Eeligion  does  not  place  us  above  the 
ordinary  cares  and  difficulties  of  life.  In- 
deed, they  often  increase  and  act  upon  us 
so  as  to  depress  us  beyond  all  measure 
until,  like  Job,  our  patience  exhausted,  we 
cry  out  in  despair,  "My  soul  is  weary  of 
my  life. ' ' 

Our  failures  to  reach  our  ideals  of  the 
Divine  life  have  a  depressing  effect  upon 
us.  Oftentimes  our  ideals  of  the  Christian 
life  are  so  beautiful  that  they  charm  our 
meditation  and  inspire  our  purpose. 
Though  advancing  we  fail  to  reach  them. 
They  are  far  beyond  us,  hid  away  in  the 
infinite  bosom  of  God.  In  our  seasons  of 
meditation  we  have  gazed  upon  the  image 
of  Christ  as  presented  to  us  in  the  Gospel 
and  pictured  upon  our  imagination,  and  in 
those  choice  hours  we  have  desired,  yea 
longed  to  be  conformed  to  His  image,  that 
we  might  be  able  to  do  our  full  share  in 
the  transformation  of  the  world.  Eising 
from  these  day  dreams  with  high  hopes  and 


Encouragement.  175 

buoyant  spirits,  we  have  gone  forth  into 
the  world  to  engage  in  well  doing,  only  to 
find  that  the  more  intensely  we  cared  for 
the  souls  of  men,  the  more  were  we  laid 
open  to  a  feeling  of  weariness  and  depres- 
sion. If  you  would  know  something  of  the 
discouragements  connected  with  well  doing, 
go  down  with  some  of  God 's  faithful  work- 
ers into  the  sickening  scenes  of  discomfort, 
squalor,  and  vice  into  which  their  work  of 
beneficence  takes  them,  and  if  you  have 
any  eyes  to  see  you  will  be  convinced  con- 
cerning this  matter. 

In  other  work  we  can,  to  a  large  extent, 
walk  by  sight  and  feel  the  encouraging  in- 
fluence of  results.  In  it  we  have  something 
to  show  for  what  our  hands  have  been 
doing.  In  a  life  of  well  doing  we  often 
have  little  to  show  in  the  line  of  results. 
Of  course,  in  feeding  the  hungry,  clothing 
the  naked,  and  imparting  knowledge  to  the 
young,  there  is  something  in  the  way  of 
results  to  be  seen.    But  in  seeking  to  in- 


176  Conflict  and  Victory. 

fluence  men's  hearts  through  Gospel  truth, 
how  often  do  we  feel  like  crying  out  with 
the  one  of  old,  "Lord,  who  hath  believed 
our  report,  and  to  whom  is  Thine  arm  re- 
vealed % ' '  Hence  Moses  shatters  the  tables 
of  the  law  in  sad  and  bitter  disappointment ; 
Elijah  weeps  over  the  apostasy  of  Israel, 
falters  beneath  his  task  and  cries  out  in  the 
anguish  of  his  soul,  ''0  Lord,  take  away 
my  life,  for  I  am  not  better  than  my 
fathers."  Paul  finds  fickleness  in  his  con- 
verts and  mourns  over  it ;  Luther  is  so  sad 
and  disheartened  in  his  work  that  he  sits 
down  and  writes  in  his  diary,  "If  God 
wishes  the  Reformation  to  go  on  He  must 
come  and  take  it  in  hand  Himself. ' '  What 
wonder  that  we  become  discouraged! 
What  wonder  that  we  become  faint  and 
weary  in  our  work  of  well  doing  when  we 
see  all  around  us  men  possessed  of  immor- 
tal souls,  and  yet  so  besotted,  blinded,  and 
hardened  by  sinful  indulgences  as  to  prefer 


Encouragement.  177 

the  slavery  of  Satan,  with  its  galling  yoke, 
to  the  light  and  liberty  of  the  Christian  life. 
It  is  well  for  us  that  we  have  a  Savior  who 
is  able  to  succor  us,  who  because  He  was 
in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet 
without  sin,  could  say  unto  us,  ''In  the 
world  ye  shall  have  tribulation,  but  be  of 
good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
When  we  think  of  Christ  who,  although 
assailed  by  slander,  contradiction,  and  en- 
snaring questions — although  betrayed  by 
one  disciple,  denied  by  another,  and  for- 
saken by  all  —  although  blasphemed, 
scourged,  derided,  and  crucified,  went 
steadily  forward  in  the  path  of  suffering 
and  sacrifice  until  the  perfect  work  was 
done,  we  may  well  be  thankful  and  very 
appropriately  offer  the  poet 's  prayer : 

"Lord,  should  my  path  through  suffering  lead, 
Forbid  it  I  should  e'er  repine; 
Still  let  me  turn  to  Calvary,  nor  heed 
My  grief,  remembering  Thine." 


12 


178  Conflict  and  Victory. 

This  is  a  very  encouraging  exhortation, 
for  it  has  respect  unto  the  recompense  of 
reward.  "Let  us  not  be  weary  in  well 
doing,  for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap  if 
we  faint  not. ' '  In  the  long,  weary,  painful 
conflict  which  Saint  Paul  heroically  waged 
with  superstition,  error,  and  corruption, 
the  flesh  must  have  often  felt  weak,  and  the 
need  of  some  such  stimulus  as  the  recom- 
pense of  reward  must  have  often  been 
apparent.  It  is  even  so  to-day,  for  we  are 
apt  to  become  discouraged  and  weary  in 
well  doing.  Were  it  not  for  this  hope,  the 
work  of  Foreign  Missions  would  be  a  hope- 
less undertaking,  and  would  often  be  given 
up  in  despair.  The  Gospel  has  been  very 
slow  in  taking  root  upon  some  soils.  In 
Burmah  Dr.  Judson  toiled  for  seven  years 
before  he  saw  any  fruits  from  his  labors. 
During  those  years  he  and  his  wife  ob- 
served the  sacrament  of  the  Lord 's  Supper 
regularly,  but  they  were  the  only  communi- 
cants.   In  some  parts  of  Africa  and  New 


JEncouragement.  179 

Zealand  we  find  missionaries  had  to  wait 
even  longer  than  this  before  the  reaping 
time  came,  but  faithfulness  in  these  cases 
was  abundantly  rewarded. 

In  our  home  field  the  worker  often  finds 
it  very  difficult  to  make  any  headway.  In 
the  early  days  of  the  Student  Settlement 
Movement  the  work  seemed  more  like  a 
forlorn  hope  than  laying  foundations  for 
glorious  achievements  in  the  near  future. 
When  Judge  Lindsay  took  charge  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  in  Denver,  Colorado,  and 
undertook  the  task  of  reforming  the  city's 
youthful  criminals,  it  seemed  like  an  im- 
possible undertaking,  but  his  perseverance, 
and  patience,  and  tact  were  rewarded,  for 
we  are  told  that  in  over  ninety  per  cent  of 
the  cases  he  succeeded— a  record  of  which 
an  archangel  might  well  be  proud.  Then 
let  us  not  be  weary  in  well  doing,  for 
though  our  paths  of  usefulness  may  be  ob- 
scure, our  influence  unobserved,  and  our 
purposes  slowly  developed,  still  if  we  are 


180  ConJUct  and  Vicrtoy. 

laboring  along  right  lines,  God  is  with  us, 
and  one  with  God  is  a  majority.  Each 
worker  in  God's  vineyard  ought  to  be  able 
to  look  up  confidently  and  say : 

"  Now  do  I  gather  strength  and  hope  anew; 
For  well  I  know  thy  patient  love  perceives 
Not  what  I  did,  but  what  I  strove  to  do; 
And  though  the  full  ripe  ears  are  sadly  few. 
Thou  wilt  accept  my  sheaves." 

Then,  too,  we  have  encouragement  in  the 
thought  that  if  we  do  not  find  the  results 
of  our  Christian  service  on  earth,  we  will 
find  them  in  Heaven,  for  God's  word  as- 
sures us  that  "Good  deeds  in  this  world 
done  are  paid  beyond  the  sun. ' ' 

Then  let  us  spend  our  lives,  not  simply 
for  ourselves,  but  for  others.  It  will  en- 
hance our  peace  and  enjoyment  here,  and 
fit  us  for  that  better  life  of  service  and 
enjoyment  beyond.  If  we  would  in  the 
future  enjoy  the  reaping  season  to  the  full, 
we  must  be  prepared  to  make  some  sacri- 
fices when  the  cause  of  the  Master  makes 


Encouragement.  181 

the  demand  in  the  interest  of  humanity. 
None  are  more  stunted  in  spiritual  growth 
than  he  who  is  always  thinking  about  his 
own  Soul's  nourishment.  Such  a  person 
always  remains  spiritually  weak,  while  he 

"Who  has  good  deeds  brought  well  to  end, 
For  him  the  gloomy  forests  shine, 
The  whole  world  is  to  him  a  friend. 
And  all  the  earth  a  diamond  mine." 

We  are  traveling  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
illustrious  of  the  earth  whose  type  of  ex- 
cellence in  things  temporal  does  not  by  any 
means  satisfy  us.  Why  should  we  not  more 
than  measure  up  to  their  standard  in  things 
spiritual?  Surely  it  is  not  an  impossible 
undertaking. 

"If  only  we  strive  to  be  pure  and  true, 
To  each  of  us  all  there  will  come  an  hour 
When  the  tree  of  life  will  burst  into  flower, 
And  rain  at  our  feet  a  glorious  dower 
Of  something  grander  than  ever  we  knew." 


CHAPTER  IX. 
INTELLIGENT  GOODNESS. 


"Ezra  had  prepared  his  heart  to  seek  the  law  of 
the  Lord,  and  to  do  it,  aud  to  teach  in  Israel  statutes 
and  judgments." 

"A  wise  man  will  hear,  and  will  increase  learning; 
and  a  man  of  understanding  shall  attain  unto  wise 
counsels." 

"Let  your  loins  be  girded  about  and  your  lights 
burning;  and  ye  yourselves  like  unto  men  that  wait 
for  their  Lord." 

"Give  diligence  to  present  thyself  approved  unto 
God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed, 
handling  aright  the  word  of  truth." 


INTELLIGENT  GOODNESS. 

Gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind,  be  sober,  and  hope 
to  the  end, — 1  Peter  i,  13. 

The  Apostle  Peter  seems  always  to  liave 
cherished,  after  Pentecost,  a  verj^  becoming 
anxiety  for  the  training,  development,  and 
self-control  of  his  brethren  in  Christ.  In- 
deed this,  it  would  seem,  was  the  object 
Christ  had  in  view  when  He  called  him  to 
the  apostleship,  for  in  tracing  his  history 
you  will  notice  that  while  he  was  yet  a 
stranger  to  the  true  nature  of  his  Lord's 
Kingdom,  the  Savior  delivered  to  him  this 
solemn  injunction,  '*When  thou  art  con- 
verted strengthen  thy  brethren."  This 
charge  Peter  seems  never  to  have  lost  sight 
of,  for  true  to  its  requirements,  he  promptly 
began  his  ministry,  as  soon  as  converted, 
by  preaching  a  strong  Gospel  sermon  upon 
the  day  of  Pentecost.     We  see  the  same 

185 


186  Confiict  and  Victory. 

spirit  manifested  in  his  Epistles  which  are 
from  beginning  to  end  inspirational,  hope- 
ful, and  helpful.  The  chapter  from  which 
my  text  is  taken  is  a  model  in  this  par- 
ticular. In  the  text  he  calls  our  attention, 
by  way  of  exhortation,  to  three  important, 
necessary  things.  Let  us  then,  without 
further  introduction,  proceed  to  their  con- 
sideration, taking  them  in  the  order  in 
which  they  are  presented  in  the  text. 

We  are  exhorted  in  the  opening  clause 
to  vigorous  intelligence,  or  mental  activity, 
''Gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind."  The 
Christian  religion  never  has  placed  and 
never  can  place  a  premium  upon  sloth.  Her 
invariable  injunction  to  all  is  this:  ''What- 
soever thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with 
thy  might."  The  words  of  the  text  assure 
us  that  the  intellectual  part  of  our  nature 
is  not  to  be  made  an  exception  to  this  rule. 
The  progressive  Christian  must  stand  in 
the  council  of  the  Lord  and  learn  with  zeal, 
for  purity  of  doctrine  is  no  less  an  essential 


Intelligent  Goodness.  187 

than  purity  of  life.  The  Bible  and  the 
Christian  religion  emphasize  culture.  Paul, 
who  was  a  man  of  vigorous  intellect,  broad 
culture,  and  strong  volition,  to  whose  in- 
tellectual development  three  civilizations 
contributed,  had  none  of  that  miserable 
contempt  for  human  learning  which  charac- 
terizes some  of  the  religious  fanatics  of 
to-day.  He  believed  that  religion  was  de- 
signed to  educate  the  soul,  build  up  the 
character,  develop  native  qualities,  mar- 
shal the  energies,  subject  the  will,  and  em- 
ploy the  imagination.  He  believed  that  it 
was  through  mental  processes,  largely,  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  works.  Hence  his  exhorta- 
tion— ' '  Be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing 
of  your  minds,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is 
that  good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect  will 
of  God."  If  religion  is  to  give  birth, 
growth,  and  maturity  to  our  spiritual  lives, 
she  must  not  ignore  the  intellectual  in  man. 
She  must  not  dispense  with  culture,  for 
that  would  be  to  reject  her  strongest  ally. 


188  Conflict  and  Victory. 

The  point  to  which  Peter  especially  di- 
rects our  attention  is  not  so  much  the  need 
of  being  educated,  but  the  necessity  of 
keeping  the  mind  always  under  control,  in 
training  and  ready  for  action.  This  is  evi- 
dent from  the  figure  he  employs, ' '  Gird  up 
the  loins  of  your  mind."  The  reference 
here  is  to  the  girded  waiter  of  the  ancient 
world  who,  when  on  duty,  had  his  loins  girt 
about,  and  his  long,  flowing  robes  tucked  up 
under  his  belt,  so  as  to  admit  of  free  and 
prompt  movement.  When  a  command  for 
service  was  given  no  time  was  permitted 
for  girding  oneself.  That  had  to  be  done 
previous  to  presenting  oneself  for  duty. 
How  aptly  this  figure  applies  to  the  life  of 
the  Christian  in  an  intellectual  sense. 
Preparation  for  service  is  a  necessity  in 
the  religious  world  if  we  are  to  be  recep- 
tive to  the  truth  and  competent  to  detect 
error.  As  Bishop  Hurst  observes,  "There 
is  an  intimate  union  between  philosophy 
and  theology,   and,   hence,   anything  less 


Intelligent   Goodness.  189 

than  the  pursuit  and  cultivation  of  a  sound 
philosophy  will  endanger  our  theology." 
Tennyson  gives  us  a  beautiful  word  of  ad- 
vice when  he  says : 

"Hold  thou  the  good:  define  it  well; 
Nor  fear  Divine  philosophy 
Should  push  beyond  her  mark,  and  be 
Procuress  to  the  lords  of  hell." 

When  I  look  out  upon  the  world  to-day 
and  see  the  mighty  conflict  that  is  waging, 
fierce  and  strong,  between  the  children  of 
light  and  the  allied  forces  of  evil,  I  feel,  as 
a  Christian  man,  that 

"  I  dare  not  sit  with  loins  ungirt  and 

Staff  unlifted;  for  death  stands  too  near. 

I  must  be  up  and  doing — yea,  each  minute ; 

The  grave  gives  time  for  rest  when  we  are  in  it." 

As  Christians  it  becomes  us  to  wage  an 
eternal  conflict,  not  simply  with  worldliness 
and  moral  indifference,  but  with  mental 
sluggishness  in  things  pertaining  to  reli- 
gion.   We  must  emphasize  the  fact  that  in 


190  Conjlict  amd  Victory. 

all  parts  of  God's  Kingdom  fitness  is  the 
law  of  service,  and  the  only  law.  In  the 
religious  world  we  must  study  to  show  our- 
selves approved  unto  God,  for  He  can  only 
use  our  work  according  to  its  fitness. 
Hence,  God  will  not,  because  He  can  not  in 
the  spiritual  world,  any  more  than  in  the 
physical,  produce  grapes  from  thorns,  or 
figs  from  thistles.  This  would  be  inconsist- 
ent, and  here  we  draw  the  line. 

We  are  also  exhorted  in  the  text  to  be 
men  and  women  of  self-control.  In  other 
words,  we  are  to  ''be  sober."  There  are 
those  in  the  religious  world  who  would  have 
us  believe  that  to  be  deeply  religious,  we 
must  be  lost  to  all  self-control.  Such  a 
view  is  sadly  out  of  harmony  with  the 
teaching  of  God's  word.  If  the  Bible  has 
any  lessons  for  me  in  this  particular,  it  is 
that  the  true  Christian  is  not  volatile,  fickle, 
or  fanatica»l.  It  expressly  declares  that 
' '  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of 
peace  as  in  all  the  churches  of  the  saints. ' ' 


Intelligent  Goodness.  191 

When  Peter  gave  us  the  advice  of  the  text, 
he  spake  from  experience.  His  character 
was  very  different  when  he  wrote  this  Epis- 
tle, from  what  it  was  when  he  said  to  Jesus, 
''Behold,  we  have  forsaken  all,  and  fol- 
lowed Thee;  what  shall  we  have  there- 
fore?" The  old  impetuosity  which 
prompted  him  to  strike  off  an  ear,  and  the 
old  forwardness  which  led  him  to  even 
rebuke  the  Savior  had  been  chastened,  re- 
fined, subdued.  There  was  the  same 
natural  temperament,  the  same  sanguine 
hope,  but  it  was  directed,  not  to  self -exalta- 
tion and  pre-eminence  above  his  brethren, 
but  to  the  glorious  prospects  that  open  to 
all  faithful  workers.  Naturally  an  impul- 
sive, hot-headed,  rash  man,  he  became 
through  the  influence  of  the  Spirit  self- 
poised,  calm,  and  thoughtful.  True,  he  was 
fervent,  but  not  disorderly;  full  of  high 
enthusiasm,  but  free  from  religious  hys- 
teria. Such  should  every  Christian  aim  to 
be,  for  religion  consists  in  a  calm,  quiet 


192  Conflict  and  Victory. 

walk  with  God.  It  has,  it  is  true,  its  emo- 
tions which  at  times  are  deep  and  strong, 
but  it  is  ever  orderly  and  grave.  In  writ- 
ing to  the  Thessalonian  believers,  Paul 
could  say  concerning  the  conduct  of  Silas, 
Timotheus,  and  himself,  ''We  behaved  not 
ourselves  disorderly  among  you."  Paul 
was  a  manly  Christian,  a  follower  of  Jesus, 
his  ideal.  In  Christ  we  find  beautifully 
blended  the  highest  refinement  and  the 
truest  grace.  In  studying  His  life  among 
nwen,  we  find  that  He  was  never  common- 
place, rude,  or  vulgar,  even  to  His  enemies. 
If  He  was  severe,  He  was  dignified;  if 
familiar,  yet  always  with  becoming  reserve. 
No  wonder  that  Renan,  the  scholarly 
skeptic  of  France,  should  stand  with  un- 
covered head  in  the  presence  of  the  Man  of 
Nazareth.  No  wonder  that  IngersoU,  the 
dashing,  eloquent  skeptic  of  America, 
should  join  Pilate  in  saying  of  the  Man, 
Christ,  "I  find  no  fault  in  Him."  Why 
these  acknowledgTQents  ?     Simply  because 


Intelligent  Goodness.  193 

in  point  of  behavior  Christ  is  still  the 
world's  perfect  model.  Those  who  con- 
form their  lives  to  the  example  He  gave 
while  on  earth  will  be  the  most  influential. 
A  strong  man  is  always  stronger  for  be- 
ing a  thorough  gentleman.  A  good  man  is 
better,  and  his  goodness  is  more  highly  ap- 
preciated, if  he  observes  those  minor  vir- 
tues which  refine  and  beautify  the  life,  for 
the  Word  of  God  assures  us  that,  "Better 
is  he  that  ruleth  his  own  spirit  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city."  It  is  the  bane  of  our  own 
times  that  the  average  man  is  almost  sure 
to  underestimate  that  part  of  himself  which 
may  be  termed  his  personal  influence.  This 
is  unfortunate,  for  every  man  should  have 
an  ambition  to  impress  the  world  and 
leave  it  better  than  he  found  it.  Our  influ- 
ence should  and  will  increase  if  our  char- 
acters continue  to  grow  and  our  conduct 
improves.  If  we  would  enhance  our  influ- 
ence and  increase  our  power,  we  must  sur- 
render ourselves  completely  to  the  cause  of 

13 


194  Conflict  a/nd  Victory. 

right  and  be  wise  in  all  our  efforts  to  pro- 
mote it;  for,  as  a  general  thing,  when  the 
world  wants  a  reliable  man,  one  who  is  a 
positive  quantity,  it  almost  invariably 
turns  away  from  the  frivolous  and  the  er- 
ratic and  makes  choice  of  the  earnest,  self- 
reliant,  forceful,  sober  man. 

"Think    truly,    and    thy    thought    shall    the    world's 

famine  feed; 
Speak  truly,  and  thy  word  shall  be  a  fruitful  seed; 
Live  truly,  and  thy  life  shall  be  a  great  and  noble 

creed." 

In  the  last  clause  of  the  text  we  are 
exhorted  to  be  optimistic  Christians,  to 
''hope  unto  the  end."  In  the  theological 
world  Peter  is  called  the  apostle  of  hope, 
for  while  Paul  emphasizes  faith  and  John 
love,  Peter  lays  particular  stress  upon 
hope.  This  is  greatly  to  his  credit,  for 
hope  is  a  mighty  motive  power  in  the  lives 
we  live  here  upon  earth.  And  for  him  to 
take  it  and  make  it  subservient  to  the  build- 
ing up  of  Christ 's  kingdom  upon  earth  was 


Intelligent  Goodness.  195 

an  undertaking  worthy  of  an  apostle. 
' '  Gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind,  be  sober, 
and  hope  unto  the  end. ' '  What  a  wonder- 
ful magic  there  is  in  that  word  hope !  What 
would  this  world  do,  what  would  this  life 
be  without  it!  In  the  secular  world  it  is 
the  great  secret  of  success  and  the  strong- 
est incentive  to  enterprise.  Annihilate 
hope  and  the  husbandman  would  forsake 
his  furrow,  the  physician  his  patient,  the 
student  his  books,  the  merchant  his  traffic, 
and  the  scientist  his  crucible.  Even  Pagan 
mythology  in  her  vain  but  beautiful  dreams 
said  that  when  all  other  divinities  fled 
from  the  world,  hope  with  her  elastic  step, 
beaming  countenance,  and  lustrous  attire 
lingered  behind  to  comfort  and  bless.  How 
true  this  has  been  of  religious  hope,  which 
has  never  been  absent  from  the  world  for 
a  single  day!  In  every  period  of  human 
history  the  star  of  hope  has  lent  its  realiz- 
ing light.  I  look  back  to  Eden  and  I  see 
the  drooping  exiles  going  forth  to  an  awful 


196  Confiict  and  Victory. 

inheritance  of  pain  and  labor,  but  hope  is 
there.  To  them  has  been  given  the  promise 
that  the  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise 
the  serpent's  head.  A  little  further  down 
the  centuries  I  see  a  solitary  pilgrim  toil- 
ing wearily  along  amid  wild  pastoral  hills, 
ignorant  of  his  true  destiny,  but  as  he 
journeys  his  face  is  radiant  with  hope,  for 
he  is  traveling  toward  an  inheritance — a 
promised  land,  where  his  seed  is  to  become 
as  numerous  as  the  stars  that  shine  above 
him,  or  the  grains  of  sand  beneath  his  feet. 
I  follow  the  course  of  events  on  down  to 
the  close  of  a  great  dispensation  and  the 
beginning  of  a  new  and  glorious  era,  and 
I  find  myself  standing  upon  Mount  Cal- 
vary, surrounded  by  a  weary  world  of 
moral  darkness,  and  I  see  Him  who  is  the 
world's  hope  taken  by  rude  hands  and 
crucified.  I  see  Him  taken  from  the  cross 
and  laid  in  a  new  tomb  of  hewn  rock,  a 
great  stone  is  rolled  to  the  door,  and  the 
greatest  eartly  power — the  Roman  govern- 


Intelligent  Good/fhess.  197 

ment — seals  the  tomb.  It  seems  as  if  re- 
ligious hope  has  perished,  for  who  shall 
dare  to  interfere  with  a  Roman  seal?  A 
watch  of  Roman  soldiers  is  placed  on 
guard,  and  thus  they  hold  their  victim. 
But  wait  a  little.  On  the  morning  of  the 
third  day  a  visitant  from  another  world 
approaches  that  tomb.  At  the  brightness 
of  his  appearing  the  guards  are  overpow- 
ered, and  become  as  dead  men.  Without 
pausing  to  inquire  as  to  whose  authority 
is  being  interfered  with  the  seal  is  broken, 
the  stone  is  rolled  back,  and  the  mighty 
Conqueror  comes  forth  from  His  tomb,  a 
glorious  victor.  I  follow  Him  out  to 
Bethany,  and  I  see  Him  lift  His  hands  in 
blessing  on  His  disciples,  bidding  them  go 
forth  to  redeem  the  world,  adding  this  sig- 
nificant promise,  ''Lo,  I  am  with  you  al- 
way,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  days. "  This 
is  the  world's  hope,  the  Christian's  an- 
chor. 

Shall  men  of  science,  art,  and  philosophy 


198  Conflict  and  Victory. 

pursue  their  way  undeterred  by  successive 
failures,  and  shall  the  Christian  become 
the  victim  of  faintness  and  despair?  Shall 
they  cry  out  '' Excelsior,"  and  we  moan 
out,  dolefully,  ''Ichabod,  Ichabod, — the 
glory  has  departed?"  No,  no,  it  never  has 
been  so,  and  it  never  shall  be.  Have  they 
sustaining,  inspiring  hope  ?  We  have  more ; 
ours  is  a  conquering,  victorious  hope.  It 
fills  the  whole  horizon  and  reaches  to  the 
infinite,  for  it  is  "Christ  in  me,  the  hope 
of  glory. ' ' 

The  executioners  may  lead  Paul  forth  to 
be  beheaded,  or  torn  to  pieces  by  the  wild 
beasts,  but  they  can  not  rob  him  of  that 
hope  which  anchors  his  soul  to  that  which 
is  within  the  veil,  or  prevent  him  from 
saying,  "I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered  up; 
I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished 
my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith.  Hence- 
forth there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of 
righteousness  which  the  Lord,  the  right- 
eous Judge,  shall  give  unto  me  at  that  day, 


Intelligent  Goodness.  199 

and  not  unto  me  only,  but  unto  all  them 
that  love  His  appearing. ' '  The  Christian 's 
hope  is  a  glorious  hope.  It  is  worth  some- 
thing to  be  able  to  say,  through  faith  in 
the  Gospel  of  which  the  scholarly  Paul  was 
not  ashamed  and  the  Christ  who  stood 
waiting  to  receive  Stephen's  spirit,  when 
standing  upon  the  verge  of  the  grave  and 
in  the  prospect  of  the  dust  returning  to 
its  dust,  ''My  flesh  shall  rest  in  hope.'*  It 
is  worth  something  to  be  able  to  say,  ' '  My 
soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God,  for  my  ex- 
pectation is  from  Him." 

"The  wise  man,  saith  the  Bible,  walks  with  God, 
Surveys  far  on  the  endless  line  of  life; 
Values  his  soul:  thinks  on  eternity;  both 
Worlds  considers  and  provides  for  both; 
With  reason's  eye  his  passions  guards; 
Abstains  from  evil;   lives  on  hope,  on  hope  the 

fruit  of  faith. 
Looks  upward:  purifies  his  soul,  expands  his  wings 
And  mounts  into  the  sky; 
Passes  beyond  the  sun  and  gains  his 
Father's  house,  and  drinks  with  angels  from  the 
Fount  of  bliss." 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  CITIZEN- 
SHIP. 


"Blessed  is  the  nation  whose  God  is  the  Lord." 

"Righteousness  exalteth  a  nation:  but  sin  is  a 
reproach  to  any  people." 

"When  the  righteous  are  in  authority,  the  people 
rejoice:  but  when  the  wicked  beareth  rule,  the  people 
mourn." 

"God  is  no  respecter  of  persons:  but  In  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  Him,  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness, is  acceptable  to  Him." 


THE  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  CITIZEN- 
SHIP. 

Thou  Shalt  provide  out  of  all  the  people  able  men, 
such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  covetousness; 
and  place  such  over  them,  to  be  rulers  of  thousands, 
and  rulers  of  hundreds,  rulers  of  fifties,  and  rulers 
of  tens. — Exodus  xviii,  21. 

Through  assisting  a  fellow  countryman 
to  slay  an  Egyptian,  Moses  became  a  fugi- 
tive and  fled  from  justice.  The  land  of 
Midian  became  his  sanctuary.  Here  he 
lived  for  many  years  with  Jethro,  the 
priest,  whose  flocks  he  tended  and  whose 
daughter,  Zipporah,  he  married.  By  this 
marriage  he  had  two  sons,  Gershom  and 
Eliezer.  One  day  while  keeping  his  father- 
in-law's  flocks  near  Mt.  Horeb,  an  angel  of 
the  Lord  appeared  to  him  out  of  a  burning 

203 


204  Conflict  and  Victory. 

bush  and  gave  him  instructions  to  go  down 
into  Egypt  and  liberate  his  oppressed 
brethren.  In  obedience  to  this  command 
he  went  back  to  Egypt,  leaving  his  wife 
and  two  sons  to  be  cared  for  by  his  father- 
in-law. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  recount  the  wonder- 
ful things  that  transpired  in  Egypt  before 
he  was  able  to  effect  a  deliverance  for  his 
oppressed  brethren,  n-o«r  shall  I  linger  to 
give  the  details  of  their  triumph  at  the 
Red  Sea,  and  their  signal  victory  over 
Amalek.  All  these  are,  no  doubt,  very 
familiar  to  you.  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
the  news  of  these  strange  and  startling 
events  spread  very  rapidly  over  the  entire 
Sinaitic  peninsula. 

When  Jethro  heard  all  that  the  Lord  had 
done  for  Moses  and  learned  that  the 
Israelites  were  encamped  before  Mount 
Sinai,  he  decided  to  pay  Moses  a  personal 
visit  and  at  the  same  time  take  to  him  his 
wife  and  two  sons,  who  had  been  left  in 


Responsibility  of  Citizenship.         205 

his  care  when  he  went  down  into  Egypt  to 
help  his  brethren.  When  Jethro  reached 
Mount  Sinai,  he  was  received  by  Moses 
with  every  token  of  respect,  treated  as  a 
superior  and  made  welcome  in  the  camp  of 
Israel.  Moses,  as  might  be  expected,  told 
him  all  that  God  had  done  for  his  country- 
men, and  Jethro,  showing  no  signs  of 
mortification  at  seeing  his  former  shepherd 
in  such  an  exalted  position,  was  filled  with 
joy,  and  said,  "Blessed  be  the  Lord  who 
hath  delivered  you  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
Egyptian."  Owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  hur- 
ried condition  of  things,  Moses  had  only 
one  day  to  spend  in  entertaining  his  father- 
in-law;  for  we  are  informed  by  the  sacred 
historian  that  "On  the  morrow  he  sat  to 
judge  the  people."  It  would  seem  that 
from  the  time  he  was  accepted  as  leader 
by  the  people,  he  had  considered  himself 
bound  to  hear  and  decide  all  complaints 
that  might  arise  among  them.  And  so 
numerous  were  the  cases  that  were  brought 


206  Conjiiet  and  Victory. 

before  him  that  he  was  compelled  to  sit 
from  morning  until  evening.  This  was  by 
far  too  heavy  a  task  for  any  one  man  to 
assume  in  a  community  numbering  millions 
of  souls.  And  Jethro,  who  was  a  man  of 
keen  observation  and  good  judgment,  see- 
ing that  Moses  was  pursuing  a  course  that 
would  ultimately  prove  disastrous,  took  it 
upon  himself  to  give  him  some  advice  in 
this  matter  of  governing  the  people.  He 
saw  at  once  that  there  were  enough  men 
in  Israel  who  were  sufficiently  qualified  to 
execute  all  the  minor  governmental  func- 
tions and  that  such  persons  ought  to  be 
utilized;  for  Moses  would  not  only  wear 
himself  out  with  fatigue,  but  he  would 
also  exhaust  the  patience  of  the  people 
through  inability  to  attend  personally  to 
the  number  of  cases  that  would  be  sure  to 
arise  among  so  many.  Jethro,  therefore, 
recommended  the  appointment  of  subordi- 
nate officers  to  administer  justice  in  all 
cases  of  minor  importance,  reserving  only 


JRes^onsibility  of  Citizenship.         207 

the  more  difficult  ones  for  Moses  himself 
to  adjust.  The  kind  of  men  he  advised  him 
to  appoint  for  this  work  were  such  as  are 
described  in  my  text:  "Thou  shalt  provide 
out  of  all  the  people,"  said  Jethro,  ''able 
men,  such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating 
covetousness."  Nor  did  he  wish  Moses  to 
act  hastily  in  this  matter,  for  he  further 
remarked, ' '  If  thou  shalt  do  this  thing  and 
God  command  thee  so,  then  thou  shalt  be 
able  to  endure,  and  all  this  people  shall  go 
to  their  place  in  peace."  Jethro  intended 
that  the  whole  of  this  plan  should  be  sub- 
mitted for  God's  approval  before  being 
adopted,  and  the  fact  that  Moses,  acting 
upon  Jethro 's  advice,  did  all  that  he  had 
been  advised  to  do  in  this  matter  is  proof 
positive  to  me  that  God  was  well  pleased 
with  the  plan,  for  if  not,  Moses  would  never 
have  put  it  into  execution.  So  much,  then, 
for  Jethro 's  suggestion. 

Let  me  now  invite  you  to  consider  for 
a  moment  some  of  the  features  pertaining 


208  ConJUct  and  Victory. 

to  the  election  of  these  rulers  in  Israel, 
which  are,  in  a  measure,  analogous  to  our 
own  form  of  government.  ''Thou  shalt 
provide  out  of  all  the  people."  From  the 
phraseology  of  my  text,  one  might  infer 
that  Moses  went  through  the  camp  of 
Israel  and  selected  such  men  as  he  consid- 
ered best  qualified  to  rule.  But  this,  how- 
ever, was  not  the  case,  for  it  was  not  Moses 
who  made  the  selection,  but  the  people 
themselves.  Moses  simply  confirmed  them. 
This  I  infer  from  Deut.  i,  15,  where  Moses 
in  referring  back  to  this  event  uses  these 
words, '  *  And  I  spake  unto  you  at  that  time, 
saj^ng,  I  am  not  able  to  bear  you  myself 
alone.  Take  you  wise  men  and  understand- 
ing men  and  known  among  your  tribes  and 
I  will  make  them  rulers  over  you.  And 
ye  answered  me  and  said.  The  thing  which 
thou  hast  spoken  is  good  for  us  to  do." 
By  this  we  see  that  the  people  elected  their 
rulers  and  Moses  simply  ratified  their 
choice  and  installed  them  in  office.    Here, 


Resjponsihility  of  Citizenship.         209 

then,  was  a  government,  "of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people." 

Whether  Moses  realized  it  or  not,  it  is 
nevertheless  a  fact  that  we  are  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  creatures  of  law.  That  is  to  say, 
there  is  a  law  in  our  nature  which  compels 
us  to  organize  and  govern.  It  was  God 
who  placed  that  law  there,  and  hence  it  fol- 
lows that  Civil  Government  has  become  a 
trust  committed  to  human  society  by  the 
Being  who  created  man.  Legislation  is  re- 
garded by  some  political  economists  as  the 
most  difficult  part  of  human  government. 
This  the  Israelites  had  furnished  for  them 
by  the  Supreme  Euler  of  the  universe,  who 
gave  them  their  laws, — laws  which  are  the 
basis  of  all  wise  legislation  to-day.  In- 
deed, in  the  Jewish  Theocracy,  God  was 
compelled  to  furnish  that  people  not  only 
with  good  laws,  but  with  a  good  system 
of  government.  And  it  is  noteworthy  that 
that  form  of  government  which  God  ap- 
proved was  not  one  which  gave  general 

14 


210  Conflict  and  Victory. 

power,  but  universal  service,  the  ain?  of 
which  was  ''the  greatest  good  of  tlie  great- 
est number,"  and  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people.  With  this  form 
of  government  God  was  well  pleased,  but 
when  Israel  asked  for  a  king  He  was  very 
much  displeased.  In  Israel,  during  the 
time  under  consideration,  the  people  had 
the  privilege  of  selecting  their  rulers,  and 
in  this  particular  our  condition  is  similar, 
for  in  America  the  people  rule.  Then,  too, 
if  their  laws  were  not  properly  adminis- 
tered, the  people  were  to  blame  for  it;  for 
if  improper  persons  were  elected  to  office, 
you  will  readily  admit  that  the  disgrace 
was  the  people's.  In  like  manner,  if  the 
people  of  this  nation  elect  incompetent, 
unworthy,  or  dishonorable  men  to  office, 
the  disgrace  will  be  that  of  the  nation  in 
which  such  men  are  permitted  to  rule;  for 
in  this  country  the  responsibility  of  main- 
taining good  government  lies  in  the  hands 


Responsibility  of  Citizenship.         211 

that  deposit  the  ballots,  and  hence,  if  we 
are  not  governed  as  we  ought  to  be,  then 
we,  the  people,  the  voters  of  the  country, 
are  to  blame  for  it.  In  the  case  of  the 
Israelites  the  people  were  splendidly  gov- 
erned, and  the  reason,  or  secret,  whichever 
you  may  term  it,  was  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  none  but  good  men  were  eligible 
to  office.  Just  notice,  if  you  please,  the 
qualifications  that  were  demanded  of  all 
candidates  for  office  in  the  days  of  Moses. 
None  were  eligible  to  office  who  could  not 
measure  up  to  a  certain  standard,  and 
that  standard  was  a  very  high  one. 
Character  and  ability  were  the  things  that 
were  taken  into  consideration,  and  further, 
let  me  say,  that  these  things  were  de- 
manded alike  of  him  who  ruled  over  ten, 
as  well  as  of  him  who  ruled  over  a  thou- 
sand. Let  us  go  back  and  read  the  text 
once  more.  ' '  Thou  shalt  provide  out  of  all 
the  people  able  men,  such  as  fear  God,  men 
of  truth,  hating  covetousness ;  and  place 


212  Conflict  and  Victory. 

such  over  them,  to  be  rulers  of  thousands, 
and  rulers  of  hundreds,  rulers  of  fifties, 
and  rulers  of  tens. ' '  Here  we  see  that  the 
first  prerequisite  was  ability;  for  they 
were,  first  of  all,  to  be  able  men.  You 
may  think  it  a  little  strange  that  this 
quality  should  come  first,  but,  no  doubt, 
Jethro  realized  that  it  required  men  of 
ability  to  fill  responsible  positions.  There 
are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  who 
are  honest,  upright,  and  reliable  who  ought 
never  to  be  promoted  to  positions  of  re- 
sponsibility, because  they  have  no  qualifi- 
cations whatever  for  public  service.  Or- 
dinary powers  are  not  enough  to  qualify 
a  man  to  properly  represent  his  fellows  in 
the  council  chambers  of  men,  for  unless  a 
public  man  has  ability,  he  will  not  be  able 
to  hold  the  respect  of  his  constituents,  if 
they  are  at  all  intelligent.  To  inspire  con- 
fidence and  deserve  promotion,  a  man  must 
have  sagacity  and  practical  discernment. 
Lacking  these,  he  will  be  an  injury  to  the 


Responsibility  of  Citizenship.         213 

country  if  raised  to  an  important  office. 
For  a  man,  therefore,  to  assist  in  the  elec- 
tion of  an  unqualified  ruler  is  simply  to 
commit  a  crime  against  the  State.  But  for 
a  man  to  allow  personal  fitness  for  office 
to  influence  his  choice,  other  things  being 
equal,  is  to  make  the  eternal  God  the  um- 
pire, and  in  civic  affairs  it  is  the  way  to 
do  His  will  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 
The  man,  therefore,  who  on  election  day 
allows  whim,  caprice,  or  partizanship  to  in- 
duce him  to  cast  his  ballot  for  an  incompe- 
tent person  when  principles  are  at  stake, 
and  right  and  justice  in  danger,  tampers 
with  a  public  trust,  and  is  a  traitor  to  the 
best  interest  of  his  countrj^ 

But  to  be  an  eligible  public  man  in  Israel, 
a  person  needed  more  than  ability.  First, 
Moses  was  to  see  that  all  the  candidates 
for  public  office  were  men  of  ability.  Then 
from  these  he  was  to  confirm  or  install  in 
office  such  able  men  as  feared  God.  ' '  Thou 
shalt  provide  out  of  all  the  people  able  men, 


214  Conjlict  and  Victory. 

such  as  fear  God. ' '  I  said,  a  moment  ago, 
that  piety  was  not  enough  to  qualify  a  man 
for  public  service.  I  want  to  say  now  that 
ability,  in  itself  considered,  is  not  a  suffi- 
cient guarantee  that  a  man's  public  official 
life  will  be  what  it  ought  to  be.  There  must 
be  the  fear  of  God  linked  with  ability  be- 
fore a  man  can  measure  up  to  the  Bible 
standard  of  a  ruler,  even  over  ten  persons. 
If  an  upright,  God-fearing,  reliable,  though 
incapable  man  is  unfit  for  public  office, 
which  he  certainly  is,  then  let  me  say,  with 
all  the  emphasis  I  can  give  it,  that  the  able, 
qualified  skeptic,  or  unrighteous  person,  is 
a  thousand  times  less  qualified ;  for,  unless 
God  is  reverenced  by  our  public  men,  we 
can  have  no  security  that  justice  will  be 
done,  even  by  men  of  the  greatest  intelli- 
gence. If  a  man  has  not  the  fear  of  God 
before  his  eyes,  then  is  it  not  plain  that  the 
more  ability  he  has,  the  more  capable  he  is 
to  do  harm,  and  the  more  likely  he  will  be 
to  use  it  in  that  way?     There  is  an  old 


Responsibility  of  Citizenship.        215 

custom  in  England,  which  I  think  is  still 
extant,  making  it  incumbent  on  the 
"Judges  of  Assizes"  to  preface  the  open- 
ing of  their  commission  in  each  assize  town 
by  attendance  at  divine  service  and  the 
hearing  of  God's  Word  preached  by  a  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel.  I  think  this  is  a  wise 
and  profitable  custom.  The  only  security 
we  can  have  for  righteous  judgment  is  to 
be  sure  that  the  men  who  administer  it  have 
a  proper  regard  for  righteousness.  With 
Thomas  Carlyle,  I  believe  it  to  be  "A  great 
truth  that  human  things  can  not  stand  upon 
selfishness,  mechanical  utilities,  economics, 
and  law  courts;"  for,  '4f  there  be  not  a 
religious  element  in  the  relations  of  men, 
then  such  relations  are  miserable  and 
doomed  to  ruin. "  '  *  The  being  of  a  God, ' ' 
says  Charnot,  "is  the  guard  of  the  world; 
the  sense  of  a  God  is  the  foundation  of  civil 
order :  for  without  this  there  can  be  no  tie 
upon  the  consciences  of  men."  These 
words  have  a  special  application  to  every 


216  ConjiiGt  and  Victory. 

public  man  and  citizen  in  America.  George 
Washington,  in  his  farewell  address,  said : 
*'0f  all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which 
lead  to  political  prosperity,  religion  and 
morality  are  indispensable  supports.  In 
vain  would  that  man  claim  the  tribute  of 
patriotism  who  should  labor  to  subvert 
these  great  pillars  of  human  happiness, 
these  first  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and 
citizens.  And  let  us  with  caution  indulge 
the  supposition  that  morality  can  be  main- 
tained without  religion.  ^Tiatever  may  be 
conceded  to  the  influence  of  refined  educa- 
tion on  minds  of  peculiar  mental  structure, 
reason  and  experience  forbid  us  to  expect 
that  national  morality  can  prevail  in  the 
exclusion  of  religious  principles."  These 
words  from  the  father  of  his  country,  ut- 
tered so  long  ago,  commend  themselves  to 
our  better  judgment  to-day.  We  can  have 
but  little  faith  in  the  public  administration 
of  any  man  who  has  no  moral  principles; 
for,  as  has  been  well  said,  "If  ability  is 


Resjponsibility  of  Citizenship.        217 

the  engine  that  drives  the  ship  of  State, 
the  fear  of  God  is  the  helm  that  guides  it 
clear  of  the  breakers."  Passing  by  truth 
loving  men,  which  is  fully  covered  in  the 
life  of  every  God-fearing  man,  let  us  glance 
at  the  last  item  of  my  text,  "Men  who 
hate  covetousness,"  or  as  the  new  revision 
has  it,  "Haters  of  unjust  gain."  It  is  al- 
ways wise  to  shut  out  covetous  persons 
from  a  share  in  the  government,  for  the 
tendency  of  covetousness  is  to  harden  the 
heart  and  blind  the  judgment.  Where  such 
a  spirit  is  indulged,  self  is  magnified  more 
and  more,  and  the  rights  of  others  are  not 
only  disregarded,  but  ignored.  The  duty 
of  citizenship  in  a  nation  and  government 
like  ours  is  a  sacred  one.  We  should,  and 
we  will,  if  true  men,  make  our  ballots  the 
conscientious  expression  of  our  personal 
convictions.  We  should  ever  remember, 
when  making  choice  of  a  candidate,  that 
while  ability  is  never  to  be  overlooked,  still 
the  greatest  importance  is  placed  by  him 


218  Conflict  and  Victory. 

to  whom  we  owe  our  first  allegiance  upon 
his  being  a  man  of  character  as  well  as 
ability.  God's  command  to  the  citizens  of 
this  nation  is  this:  "Thou  shalt  provide 
out  of  all  the  people  able  men,  such  as  fear 
God,  men  of  truth,  hating  covetousness ; " 
to  govern  the  people  in  the  interests  of 
righteousness.  AVhen  such  men  can  be 
found  you  can  safely  trust  them;  for  they 
will  serve  as  those  who  have  to  give  an 
account.  If  history  can  be  of  any  service  to 
us  in  this  connection,  then  its  findings  may 
be  stated  thus :  ' '  There  is  no  surer  sign  of 
national  demoralization,  no  more  certain 
indication  of  approaching  ruin,  than  the 
promotion  of  the  unfit  and  the  unworthy, 
and  there  is  no  healthier  symptom  than  the 
advancement  of  the  upright  and  the  cap- 
able. The  questions  which  every  right- 
thinking  man  will  ask  himself  before  cast- 
ing his  ballot  are :  Has  he  ability  ?  Does  he 
fear  God  so  that  an  oath  of  office  will  bind 


Responsihillty  of  Citizenship.        219 

Ms  conscience?    Is  he  true?    Does  he  hate 
unjust  gain? 

"What  constitutes  a  state? 
Not  high-raised  battlement  or  labored  mound. 

Thick  wall,  or  moated  gate; 
Not  cities  proud,  with  spires  and  turrets  crowned; 

Not  bays  and  broad-armed  ports, 
Where,  laughing  at  the  storm,  rich  navies  ride; 

Not  starred  and  spangled  courts, 
Where  low-browed  baseness  wafts  perfume  to  pride. 

No:    men,  high-minded  men. 
With  powers  as  far  above  dull  brutes  endued 

In  forest,  brake,  or  den. 
As  beasts  excel  cold  rocks  and  brambles  rude — 

Men  who  their  duties  know. 
But  know  their  rights,  and  knowing,  dare  maintain. 

Prevent  the  long-aimed  blow. 
And  crush  the  tyrant  while  they  rend  the  chain; 

These  constitute  a  state; 
And   sovereign  law,  that   state's  collected  will. 

O'er  thrones  and  globes  elate. 
Sits  empress,  crowning  good,  repressing  ill, 

Smit  by  her  sacred  frown, 
The  fiend.  Dissension,  like  a  vapor  sinks; 

And  e'en  the  all-dazzling  crown 
Hides  his  faint  rays,  and  at  her  bidding  shrinks." 


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